February 1 2001

Google starts indexing Acrobat pdf files

Chris Sherman at Websearch About.com reports that the increasingly popular Google search engine has started indexing Acrobat pdf-files (PDF="Portable Document Format").

Adobe's pdf file format has been quite a success on the Web, as it makes it possible for publishers to distribute a document that looks exactly like the original. This is far from the case when it comes to standard webpages (HTML). The pdf format is also used in the paper oriented printing business for saving and distributing originals for print, and in e-books.

In order to read pdf-files your browser must have the Acrobat Reader plug in. Most modern browsers have this by default.

In the Google search results the pdf files are marked [PDF]. There is also a link to a text version of the file, meaning that you can get to the content without having to use the Acrobat Reader. This text file replaces the standard cached version of webpages indexed by Google.

• C. Sherman: Google Ventures into the Invisible Web (About.com)
• Google
• Adobe on Acrobat

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