Is, according to Google, a filetype just the files extension? I was doing this Google search: physics formula "two bodies in contact" "how much time"|"length of time"|"duration of contact"
There were too many pdfs, which I didn't feel like reading. So I added -filetype:pdf to the search, and it got rid of a bunch of them. But the top one is still a pdf! (Google even puts a convenient pdf flag on it to let you know you're getting what your not searching for). So it seems that -inurl:pdf is more useful for searching/removing file types from your results. I think this counts as a bug. |
Strange, I don't get any PDFs trying to do your search... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=physics+formula+%22two+bodies+in+contact%22+%22how+much+time%22%7C%22length+of+time%22%7C%22duration+of+contact%22++-filetype%3Apdf&btnG=Search
Which URL was the top result for you? |
Yep, I'm logged in... here's the screenshot..
http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-screen-2005-12-06.jpg |
Logging in/out doesn't seem to change anything so I don't think it's personalization. It must be based on the data center.
Out of 17 data centers tested, 13 return only the pdf as the result for the following query, and 4 return no result: "Design, Analysis and Control" "two bodies in"
Adding -filetype:pdf to the query has no effect on any of those 13 – they do not then filter the result.
I used http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/tools/google-data-centers.php to query those 17
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By the way, considering that technically the extension "PDF" could be anything depending on the server configuration (and other non-"PDF" extensions could be Acrobat PDFs), I wonder if Google is checking the actual content type sent via the HTTP header. |
