General
Google's Catalog search, which is in beta (it was unoffically launched December 15), is unique on the web. Google has manually scanned in about 2,500 mail order catalogs using their own Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, and has made them all keyword-searchable. This is unlike most of Google's endeavours, which require little human intervention.
Search Results
When you perform a search, results are displayed as images. Each listing consists of three images. The first is the catalog's cover, which is a link to that catalog's front page. The second is the specific page on the catalog that matched your search, with a paragraph or so highlighted. The third image is a blow-up of that highlighted paragraph, but on this one your words are highlighted. Both of these are links to that specific page of the catalog. Some listings may have a "more results from this catalog" link.
Catalog Pages
Each catalog page has a toolbar at the top. Options on the toolbar let you go back a page, forward a page, show one, two, or thiry pages at a time, and search within that catalog. The toolbar also displays the name and issue of the catalog, and what their phone number is.
Search Help
As all other Google searches, you can use Google's syntax (+, -, " ", OR). See more details here.

This page was last updated on May 2, 2002. Submit changes here.