10 Free Ways to Search for Files Online

Need to find a file fast?  Over the years, I have collected some of the best (and maybe not so best) free file search web sites out there.  Here are the ten best resources to search for a file online.

What About Google? Of course, the ultimate alternative to all of these would be doing a file search in Google.  How do you do so?  Well, just start any Google search with filetype: and then put in the file type you want to search for.  Taken from Google, here are the most popular file formats you may want to search for using this trick.

  • Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)
  • Adobe PostScript (ps)
  • Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku)
  • Lotus WordPro (lwp)
  • MacWrite (mw)
  • Microsoft Excel (xls)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt)
  • Microsoft Word (doc)
  • Microsoft Works (wks, wps, wdb)
  • Microsoft Write (wri)
  • Rich Text Format (rtf)
  • Shockwave Flash (swf)
  • Text (ans, txt)

So if you are looking for a .txt file about hosting, you would type into the Google search box… 

filetype:txt hosting

So, if you are searching for a file on the web – you might try these resources or this neat Google tip.  Either way should get the job done for you.

  • http://www.mitchelaneous.com/2009/12/30/best-of-mitchelaneous-2009-edition/ Best of Mitchelaneous (2009 Edition) | Mitchelaneous

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  • http://templatewarrior.com Ward Banta

    Wow, awesome read man. Thanks for sharing! However I’m having problems with ur rss feed. Does anyone else have problems with the rss?

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