Let’s say you’re searching for something online in the PDF format.  You type in the title (if you knew the file you were looking for) or the subject (if you had no clue what was out there on the subject) and perhaps, even type in “filetype:pdf” (for those who are seasoned Google users). 

Then, depending on the popularity of your search topic, you’d get over 10 billion relevant results, each listed by title. When combing through the actual PDF file results, you would essentially have 2 options: click on the “View as HTML” button or download the PDF to view it. 

While the former stripped out the PDF’s formatting that left gaping holes in the text, the latter was something akin to buying a car without test driving it. You had to blindly download the file (sans scanning, sans security) before previewing just exactly what was in the file. Neither option was ideal, but they were  good enough for getting the job done.

Cue in Google’s new third option: “Quick View”.