Re:Google Recently Made A Silent Shift To A New Search Algor...
by James_Duval on Friday September 27, 2013 @06:16AM
(#6456230)
For me, "file:pdf" returns .pdfs, .pdf documentation, .pdf information...all kinds of things which aren't .pdf.
"filetype:pdf" seems to be the only command which reliably returns just .pdfs.
I'm in the UK, your mileage may vary.
Searching for a few random queries with either "file:pdf" or "filetype:pdf" shows that both return pdfs, but the results that I get are different. Not sure what to make of that or which is better.
[1] http://www.googleguide.com/using_advanced_operators.html