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Google search index prettifies PDF view

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Google’s search results now include a feature that allows web surfers to more easily view formatted PDFs from within their browser.

Previously, Google’s search engine included a "View as HTML" feature for documents created in the Portable Document Format standard.

Mountain View said it had added a "Quick View" option to some PDFs that retains all the formatting, including graphics, tables, fonts, and other elements. It’s based on the same service that is loaded into the firm’s Gmail and Google Docs web apps.

The "View as HTML" feature, which strips out much of the formatting in a PDF, is still available too.

Although Google officially announced the arrival of "Quick View" for PDFs in its search results yesterday, the feature has in fact been sprouting up since July this year.

Google said the option is now available for around 50 per cent of all PDFs displayed in its search index. The company added that it plans to use the viewer for other documents and file types, though it didn’t reveal when the tech would be rolled out elsewhere. ®

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Latest Comments
Anonymous Coward

But still no PDF features!

Even though it is a good improvement, Google still doesn't support any of the PDF features like form fields or annotations or links.

I've been using http://www.pdfescape.com for a while now and will continue to do so (along with the Firefox plug-in). Free and better than Google.

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Anonymous Coward

It OCR's them too

Do the search

[full legal name of service provider site:copyright.gov]

All of those documents are *scans* inside PDFs *not* text inside PDFs. Note that the names are often badly OCR'd but the regular text is very close to perfect, typical of OCR.

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Anonymous Coward

I bet they OCR all images

I bet that also means they OCR image files too... can't find a search to prove it, but I bet they do.

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