Finding Information with Google Catalogs

Google Catalogs - At first, I thought Google Catalogs was kind of silly. Google scans print catalogs and allows you to browse them by category and "flip" though them, page by page. Clicking a page enlarges it. You can zoom in to read all the details. What blew my mind is that not only can you click through all of these scanned pages, but the text is still searchable! I went to a paper manufacturer's catalog and typed in "acid-free," and, in the mini-page display, yellow highlights showed up over each occurrence of the words where they appeared on the printed page. I was able to click the yellow box to zoom in to the page to get more information. Here's one practical application of this technology: Call Mac Warehouse and tell them to stop sending you three copies of their catalog every other day because you can access it and search it anytime you want on Google. It saves them some money, saves a couple trees, and makes the information you need accessible whenever you need it.