Search engines don’t index document content well, so if the information you are looking for is buried deep within a PDF or Powerpoint presentation, you could be searching for awhile.

Try using DocMazy; it’s a document search engine that returns text, MS Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and PDF results.  You can filter results by specific file format (say, you only want PDF’s) and even preview the document before you download.   The latter made possible by iPaper, an idea we discussed in Cogito, ergo…

We don’t want to spread false information.  The major search engines can, and do, include documents in their results, but this is not their primary function.  For example, if you want to find a document in Google, you have to go to the “Advanced Search” settings and specify the file type you want.  Not to mention, documents are not optimized the way web pages are.

Really, it’s just a matter of choosing the right tool for the job.  If you want to sample a little bit of everything out there, stick with your go-to search engines.  If you want to find a specific document, like a sales presentation or financial results, try DocMazy.   You can even download the DocMazy toolbar, so document searches are quick and easy.