> I found it how it was ridiculously good at finding car number plates, airplane numbers, and even yachts! https://www.google.com/search?q=рпв+2396&tbm=isch

Interesting! It finds this ad listing where there is a photo of a boat with exactly this registration number _in the background_ (the ad itself is for a RIB, or "Rigid Inflatable Boat" in front of it):

https://www.avito.ru/arhangelsk/vodnyy_transport/lodka_rib_s...

As far as I can tell the number doesn't appear anywhere in text form, so it must be OCR indeed.