27054 1 3 econsultancy_xml <p>Google has been indexing PDFs for a long time, but this is the first time it has started to ‘read’ images. Images of text, that is.</p> <p>Scanned files had previously a relatively rare sight in the search results. In order to understand the content of a scanned document Google would look for titles and other metadata, where available, as well as taking into account third party links and references. Not exactly foolproof.</p> <p>Now you can search on specific words found inside a document, so long as it’s a PDF – no doubt Google will expand the range of index-worthy formats over time.</p> <p>OCR technology, which has been around for some time, needs to be pretty smart to get anywhere near to the reading ability of a human. Google's Evin Levey <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/picture-of-thousand-words.html">explains</a>: <em>“To people reading these documents, the distinction between words and pictures of words makes little difference, but for a computer the picture is almost unintelligible. Consider a circle. Should it be read it as a zero, the letter 'O', just a circle, or the ring from my coffee cup? People learn to answer this kind of question very quickly, but for the computer it is a painstaking and error-prone process.”</em></p> <p>Some examples of the new technology in action: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=repairing+aluminum+wiring">repairing aluminum wiring</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=spin+lock+performance">spin lock performance</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=Steady+success+in+a+volatile+world">steady success in a volatile world</a>. Those sexy phrases were all found in scanned files. </p> <p> <strong>What does this mean for SEO? <br /></strong> </p> <p>Not too much, by my reckoning. Google should be easily able to convert scanned URLs into links, so there might be a few <strong>more links</strong> coming your way if your website features in scanned documents. But there will be no anchor text, so the quality of these links isn’t going to be amazing. </p> <p>Maybe it’s simply about feeding Google with extra food. If your organisation has archived forests of scanned documents then by making them available you may present Google with some <strong>extra content</strong>. And if these documents are already accessible via your website then expect a visit from some variant of Googlebot to make sense of them. </p> <p>Cue a discussion on whether to add the 'no_follow' tag to these files from the linksculptors...</p> <FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph>Google has been indexing PDFs for a long time, but this is the first time it has started to ‘read’ images. Images of text, that is.</Paragraph> <Paragraph>Scanned files had previously a relatively rare sight in the search results. In order to understand the content of a scanned document Google would look for titles and other metadata, where available, as well as taking into account third party links and references. Not exactly foolproof.</Paragraph> <Paragraph>Now you can search on specific words found inside a document, so long as it’s a PDF – no doubt Google will expand the range of index-worthy formats over time.</Paragraph> <Paragraph>OCR technology, which has been around for some time, needs to be pretty smart to get anywhere near to the reading ability of a human. Google's Evin Levey <Link URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/picture-of-thousand-words.html" Window="Self">explains</Link>: <Quote>“To people reading these documents, the distinction between words and pictures of words makes little difference, but for a computer the picture is almost unintelligible. Consider a circle. Should it be read it as a zero, the letter 'O', just a circle, or the ring from my coffee cup? People learn to answer this kind of question very quickly, but for the computer it is a painstaking and error-prone process.”</Quote></Paragraph> <Paragraph>Some examples of the new technology in action: <Link URL="http://www.google.com/search?q=repairing+aluminum+wiring" Window="Self">repairing aluminum wiring</Link>, <Link URL="http://www.google.com/search?q=spin+lock+performance" Window="Self">spin lock performance</Link>, <Link URL="http://www.google.com/search?q=Steady+success+in+a+volatile+world" Window="Self">steady success in a volatile world</Link>. Those sexy phrases were all found in scanned files. </Paragraph> <Paragraph> <Emphasis>What does this mean for SEO? <LineBreak /></Emphasis> </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Not too much, by my reckoning. Google should be easily able to convert scanned URLs into links, so there might be a few <Emphasis>more links</Emphasis> coming your way if your website features in scanned documents. But there will be no anchor text, so the quality of these links isn’t going to be amazing. </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Maybe it’s simply about feeding Google with extra food. If your organisation has archived forests of scanned documents then by making them available you may present Google with some <Emphasis>extra content</Emphasis>. And if these documents are already accessible via your website then expect a visit from some variant of Googlebot to make sense of them. </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Cue a discussion on whether to add the 'no_follow' tag to these files from the linksculptors...</Paragraph> </FormattedContent> 2008-10-31T11:23:00+00:00 1 1 econsultancy_xml <p> <strong>It turns out that Googlebot’s addiction to text has reached a new level following the announcement that it can now index text from scanned documents.</strong> </p> <p>By using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology the search engine can now make sense of the content of scanned documents saved as PDF files.</p> <FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph> <Emphasis>It turns out that Googlebot’s addiction to text has reached a new level following the announcement that it can now index text from scanned documents.</Emphasis> </Paragraph> <Paragraph>By using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology the search engine can now make sense of the content of scanned documents saved as PDF files.</Paragraph> </FormattedContent> false 2920 <p>Read Econsultancy's <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/cms-survey-report">CMS Survey Report</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/content-management-systems-cms-buyer-s-guide-2007">CMS Buyer's Guide</a></strong> to learn more about this topic.</p> <p>Read Econsultancy's <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/cms-survey-report">CMS Survey Report</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/content-management-systems-cms-buyer-s-guide-2007">CMS Buyer's Guide</a></strong> to learn more about this topic.</p> 366629 Google indexes text from scanned files false 2008-10-31T11:23:00+00:00 google-indexes-text-from-scanned-files 2009-04-28T23:17:33+01:00 2009-10-13T09:51:24+01:00 499