Google (News - Alert) has steadily increased its investments in the cloud and partnered with several major global companies on cloud-based initiatives over the years. These investments reflect not only the importance Google places on this technology trend, but indicate where Google executives think the future of computing is headed.

For example, user demand for access to cloud-based content and apps via dedicated and mobile devices is constantly on the increase.

Most computer and mobile users make a daily experience of accessing sites, such as Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn (News - Alert), which are essentially cloud computing services. Google recently updated its Cloud Print service with a couple of new features aimed at simplifying the movement of documents from a smartphone or tablet to a printing device. It works especially well with Android (News - Alert) 4 phones.

While you can accomplish something similar using services like Dropbox to sync PDFs to your phone, Cloud Print’s print to Android is one of the easiest, fastest ways to send just about any file or Web page to a phone.

Google understands that to make the cloud appealing to large numbers of independent users, it must generate a wave of devotees and converts at all levels.

To achieve this, the company has steadily rolled out nifty smartphone apps and add-ons to accompany its cloud features. Cloud Print, first introduced in 2010, is designed to make it easy to print files from Android devices (and Chromebooks). The latest version adds support for printing to a local FedEx office as well as integration with some new Canon (News - Alert) printers that will natively support Cloud Print.

In this newest release, provided you’ve installed the latest Chrome for Android Beta on your phone and are signed in to your Google account, your Android device will now appear as a destination printer in the Cloud Print dialog. Select your device and Cloud Print will send a PDF to your phone, which will then automatically open it in Chrome for Android.