There are reports that the filetype operator within Google Search has stopped working, it has not. It doesn't work when you add additional search operators to it, like a site command to see a specific file type on a specific type. Google has said it is likely a bug and they are working on bringing it back.
If you search for PDF files on this specific site using the command [site:seroundtable.com filetype:pdf] you currently get zero results:
But in general, if you are trying to find PDF files or other filetypes for a specific query, that still works just fine. For example; [google quality raters guidelines filetype:pdf]:
Update: It might be fixed, it works for [site:cnn.com filetype:pdf]:
Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, said on X, "This is probably a bug. I'm passing it on to our team to investigate."
This is probably a bug. I'm passing it on to our team to investigate.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 28, 2024
Posted over here, probably a bug, and we'll look into it:https://t.co/xBECFWmmdX
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 28, 2024
This is probably a bug on filetype, and we're looking into it.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 28, 2024
This is probably a bug, and we're looking at it.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 28, 2024
Oh, Google dropped the cache link a month ago.
So this is a very specific bug in the list of so many Google bugs this month (this is just February):
- Google Search Working On Fixing Indexing Issue
- Bug: Google Local Pack Not Showing In Search Results
- Google Drops Link To See More Local Results From Search Results (It's Back)
- Featured snippets disappear from the Google search results
- Google Europe Search Hijacking Bug With TripAdvisor, Booking, Hotel.com & More
- Bug With Google Shopping Exclude Search Operator
- Did Google Test Removing The News Tab Or Was It A Bug?
- Google Search Recipe Carousel Dropped Many Recipe Sites This Week
- Google Analytics Referral Spam From Poland - Complaints
- Google investigating Local Services Ads bug
- Google Ads finally resolves ‘Confusing Ad Text’ issue for most users
- Google Ads Sitelink Unknown Eligibility Bug
Forum discussion at X.
Update: Google fixed the issue shortly after I posted about it and confirmed it was fixed later:
It looks fixed now; sorry for the inconvenience.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 28, 2024
