Linux Journal | December 2012 | Issue 224 - ACM Digital Library

INDEPTHthe drive, and anything you changethat’s stored in the drive, is updatedautomatically—not just in the cloudbut on all the other devices that youhave connected to the Drive. So youcan start working on a file on onecomputer, close it and then open it ona second computer, and what you’llsee is the version you closed on thefirst one. You can access your stufffrom anywhere—on the Web, in yourhome, at the office or while runningerrands, from all of your devices. Youcan install Drive on your Mac or PCand can download the Drive app toyour Android phone or tablet. Andregardless of platform, blind users canaccess Drive with a screen reader.3) Search everything by keywordand filter by file type, owner andmore: Drive even can recognizetext in scanned documents usingOptical Character Recognition (OCR)technology. Let’s say you upload ascanned image of an old newspaperclipping. You can search for a wordfrom the text of the actual article.Drive uses image recognition so that ifyou drag and drop photos from yourGrand Canyon trip into Drive, youlater can search for “Grand Canyon”,and photos of it should pop up. Thistechnology is still in its early stages,and it’s expected to improve over time.Figure 1. Google Drive on a Mac, PC and Android Phone or TabletWWW.LINUXJOURNAL.COM / DECEMBER 2012 / 91