Does G index .txt files?

I've found some of them in serps

[Noximus]

Hi,
Does G index .txt files?
I've found some of them in serps.
Is this new for G?

Noximus

[Macguru]

>>Does G index .txt files?

Yes, plus the following weird file formats :

.pdf
.ps (postscript)
.doc
.xls
.ppt (powerpoint)
.rtf

>>I've found some of them in serps.

If Google would not index them, they would not show in serps.

>>Is this new for G?

New file formats where added about 2 years ago. I dont know ".txt" specifically.

[takagi]

GoogleGuy in message 5 of Does Google spider .cgi pages? [webmasterworld.com] on October last year:

We'll crawl it all. We love cgi, asp, jsp, php, cfm, swf, ummm...
(help me out here folks; what are some other file extensions?)

Let's see. html/htm/txt of course. wml? Yup, we crawl wireless markup language too, although for our wireless search. Then of course there's doc, xls, ppt, ps, ps.gz, pdf, wp (wordperfect), wri (write), tex, mdb (Access)..

Okay, I'm running out of file extensions I can think of. Maybe it would be easier to make a list of filetypes that we don't crawl? :)

So it is not so new.

See also the FAQ What file types are returned in a Google search? [google.com] on Google's own site.

[Alcogooglic]

>>I dont know ".txt" specifically.

According to daterange:, the very first .txt file was added to Google index on January 29, 1996. At present, there are more than 2,650,000 .txt files in the index.

[GoogleGuy]

Ayup. .txt files are fine.

[skipfactor]

GoogleGuy

...we crawl ...doc, xls, ppt, ps, ps.gz, pdf, wp (wordperfect), wri (write), tex, mdb (Access)..

Unlike the other extensions you mentioned, a search for .mdb doesn't appear to list any Access files, and I don't recall ever seeing a *.mdb in the SERPS.

As I scramble to delete my lazy, unprotected backup folders on crusty, archaic domains, obviously in this case, you crawl but don't index specific *.mdb files right?

[Chris_R]

There are .mdb files - just not that many

[google.com...]

[takagi]

Do a search for filetype:mdb date [google.com] and you will see Google really indexed Microsoft Access database files, which can be viewed in HTML mode if you don't want to open it as an Access file.

<added>Chris beat me to it. I needed some more time to search a good example. But the number of indexed mdb files is rather small.</added>

[skipfactor]

279 results, my dog's reproductive history appears secure, impressive nonetheless, thanks.

[Alcogooglic]

279 results?
filetype:mdb mdb
returns 38,700 results!

[Yidaki]

>279 results?
>filetype:mdb mdb
>returns 38,700 results!

Everflux! LOL ;)

[Powdork]

Why can't I view these .mdb files, either in their native format (which Google claims is 'unrecognized') or as html, which just brings up a white page?

[takagi]

Why can't I view these .mdb files

No problem here to view as HTML the ones with snippet. But for security reasons (virus etc.) I don't like to open from Internet mdb files in MS Access.

[vincevincevince]

i can view them fine. it's got to be a risk indexing mdb however, because surely there'll be people who have put tables of usernames and passwords in them, or even just long lists of email addresses. indexing is only going to make it easier to find these files. i'm also not convinced that there is info WITHIN mdb files which is of interest to a human searcher, that could be picked up using a search query.