Google acquires a Web fraud prevention provider reCaptcha that will help the Internet giant on its project to scan newspapers and books for Internet distribution.

reCaptcha, a Carnegie Mellon University start-up and presents puzzle images to Web visitors as they fill out web forms such us registering forms, sumbitting forms or othe online information transactions. As for now the terms of this deal were not disclosed.

The technology works by showing website visitors words imaged in squiggly typeface which is difficult for computer applications to recognize. reCaptcha often uses phrases scanned from archived newspapers or books, and makes it even more difficult for computers to recognize because both the ink and the paper is faded.

Google Books is a scanning project, that has already ramassed a library of millions of out-of-print books as PDF documents or in the EPUB format.

Currently reCaptcha's technology is used by more than 100,000 websites of all ranges.