Google now has optical character recognition software that allows users to search web-based PDF files. Evin Levey, a Google product manager, said the company is using the technology to convert scanned documents into equivalent text files that can be searched, indexed and returned as responses to Google search queries.

"This is a small but important step forward in our mission of making all the world's information accessible and useful," said Levey.

The search engine company's application of OCR technology to the web is also expected to aid Google Book Search, the ambitious book-scanning project that began in 2004. Google has been scanning the book collections at the world's major libraries at a rate of 3,000 book titles per day since the project began in 2004.

For more on Google's new venture:
- check out this CIO-Today.com article

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