Google Is Now Indexing CSV Files

Google quietly updated their Google Search Central documentation to note that they are now indexing .csv files. Comma-Separated Values (CSV)Comma-separated values (CSV) files are text files that save data in a tabular format that can be displayed as a spreadsheet. CSV files contain data in plain text, which means that the CSV files do not contain style elements like fonts nor does it contain images or active links. CSV File Indexing Is NewGoogle’s ability to index CSV files is a new functionality because a “filetype” search on Google for CSV files does not currently return CSV files. Searches like the following currently do not return CSV files:filetype:csv site:.govfiletype:csv site:.edufiletype:csv site:.comGoogle Has Already Indirectly Used CSV FilesSomething curious about the indexing of CSV files by Google is that Google’s Dataset search appearance already used CSV files but apparently only when described with structured data.