File format searching

Andy notes that Google is now indexing Flash files. Search for “skip intro” to try it out. Upon seeing this, the gray-bearded conspiracy theorist in me wondered if Google was unfairly promoting the Flash format over Adobe’s competing SVG format in order to crush Adobe into dust. I needn’t have worried…you can search Google for SVG files just fine (because they’re text files).

Of course, you can search Google for all kinds of filetypes, text and otherwise: .rdf (RSS, FOAF, etc.), .xml (RSS, Atom, etc.), .torrent (BitTorrent), .aspx (.NET), .php (PHP), .csv (comma-delimited data file), .vcf (vCard…look, global address book made easy!), etc.