The PDF as a file format has really caught on and even when interchanging documents with friends and clients alike, I always export them via PDF rather than assuming they have Microsoft Word or OpenOffice. While generally, it’s not something that becomes a problem, many people hate having to fire up Adobe Reader. Loading it within a browser can even make the browser crash. A good workaround is the Firefox Plug-in and Foxit Reader. Google also offers PDF viewing via web browser but it’s only good for non-formatted and pure-text documents since it strips all formatting and images.

With the advent of more web tools to our disposal, here’s one service that let’s you view PDF documents online via a Flash-based viewer. PDFMeNot allows you to submit PDF URLs and even local files for conversion and viewing. It packs a few more features with a Firefox extension, a bookmarklet and blogger scripts. You can visit the site here.

And since it is Flash-based, you can ever embed it to your website. How cool is that. It works pretty much like Google Docs Presentation viewer. Does this mean no need for PDF viewers? Possibly. But it does take a little while to load.

Via Lifehacker