Amazon makes 120,000 books searchable

This is one of those “wow” things. Wired News: The Great Library of Amazonia

An ingenious attempt to illuminate the dark region of books is under way at Amazon.com. Over the past spring and summer, the company created an unrivaled digital archive of more than 120,000 books. The goal is to quickly add most of Amazon’s multimillion-title catalog. The entire collection, which went live Oct. 23, is searchable, and every page is viewable.

I have a pretty good idea what’s involved in creating the archive that Amazon has created because of my work. Scanning and OCRing 120,000 books is an impressive feat.