Link via Google Watch
Google late yesterday revealed that it has successfully implemented OCR (optical character recognition) technology to scan and convert a picture in a document created by Adobe’s PDF format into words. This renders these files searchable via the Web.
Google Product Manager Evin Levey noted in a blog post that prior to this development, scanned documents were rarely included in search results because Google couldn’t be sure of their content. “We had occasional clues from references to the document—so you might get a search result with a title but no snippet highlighting your query. Today, that changes …”
Check out this query of “Steady success in a volatile world” to see the OCR in action. You can see a snippet of the content, with the full text presented after the “View as HTML” link.
Create PDF files with Acrobat 9 Professional available at an academic discount price of $149.
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