Welcome to Land of Tricks

So you can show off your PDFs

Google Docs has been given a key new piece of functionality, allowing people to embed files like PDFs and PowerPoint presentations directly in their web pages without a download.

Google’s cloud based docs are growing in popularity as the internet giant adds functionality like the ability to view PowerPoint and TIFF documents without having to download the.

And now people will be able to bring this embedded viewer to their own websites and blogs.

Fast and clean

“Viewing files right in your browser is fast, and it keeps your downloads folder clean,” explains Google on the official Google Docs blog.

“Plus, it spares you the hassle of saving your files to the machine you’re using, which could be a shared or public computer.

“Starting today, we’re opening up this technology to all webmasters and blog owners with the Google Docs viewer. All you have to do is give the URL of a PDF, PowerPoint or TIFF document to us and we’ll display it directly in your browser with no download required.”

You mean, Google now owns one of the largest SEO companies in the world? Yep!

1. Google Buys DoubleClick
2. DoubleClick owns Performics
3. Google decides to keep Performics

Initial reaction may be that there is a conflict of interest by Google owning one of the largest search marketing firms in the business, since the goal Performics is to rank their clients highly and efficiently on Google and other search engines.

Performics clients include:

America Online, Blair Corp., Bose, Cingular, CompUSA, Eddie Bauer, Fairmont Hotels, HP Shopping, J. Jill, Jos. A. Banks, Kohl’s, L.L. Bean, Motorola, OfficeMax, PC Connection, RedEnvelope, My Sony, Quickbook, Staples, Verizon Wireless, and Wyndham Hotels.

Such services offered by Performics include paid search marketing, ‘natural’ search engine optimization and data feed marketing.

So, Performics is essentially an SEO company owned by Google.

Shawn Collins of AffiliateTip points out some bizarre language on the Google DoubleClick acquisition FAQ:

Q. What will Google do with Performics?
A. Performics is part of DoubleClick, and we are acquiring it as part of the transaction. We have no plans to dispose of it at this time.

‘No plans to dispose’ of Performics? Dispose is an interesting choice of words.

What do you think Google will do with Performics?