What is a “Document” for Google?

In this post, I will explain what a document is when referred to by Google.

What is a Document?

According to various patents, a “document” is any machine-readable and machine-storable work product [1].

More broadly, according to Google’s Gary Illyes, a document can be:

[…] any content that Google Search is able to index at the moment

Search off the record [2]

Examples of Documents

Among various patents, some examples of documents are listed.

• HTML web pages
• blog posts
• Image file
• Video file
• PDF
• Spreadsheets
• Google docs
• E-mails
• Web sites
• Files
• Combination of files
• News group posting
• Web advertisement
• Yellow pages entry
• Scanned book
• Electronic version of printed text
• One or more files with embedded links to other files

Most Common Document

A common document is a web page.

 Web pages often include textual information and may include embedded information (such as meta information, images, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embedded instructions (such as Javascript, etc.). A “link” as the term is used here, is to be broadly interpreted to include any reference to or from a document.

Documents Indexable by Google

If we rely on Gary Illyes’ definition which is any indexable document, we can find a list of indexable documents here.

• Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf)
• Adobe PostScript (.ps)
• Google Earth (.kml, .kmz)
• GPS eXchange Format (.gpx)
• Hancom Hanword (.hwp)
• HTML (.htm, .html, other file extensions)
• Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
• Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
• Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
• OpenOffice presentation (.odp)
• OpenOffice spreadsheet (.ods)
• OpenOffice text (.odt)
• Rich Text Format (.rtf)
• Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg)
• TeX/LaTeX (.tex)
• Text (.txt, .text, other file extensions), including source code in common programming languages:
  • Basic source code (.bas)
  • C/C++ source code (.c, .cc, .cpp, .cxx, .h, .hpp)
  • C# source code (.cs)
  • Java source code (.java)
  • Perl source code (.pl)
  • Python source code (.py)
• Wireless Markup Language (.wml, .wap)
• XML (.xml)

Which Patents Mentions Documents?

Most patents related to search engine will mention documents at some point or another.

Definitions

Patent term	Definition
Document	Any machine-readable and machine-storable work product
Link	Any reference to or from a document

Sources

• [1] Systems and methods for determining document freshness
• [2] Search off the Record
• [3] Changing a rank of a document by applying a rank transition function
• [4] Updating search engine document index based on calculated age of changed portions in a document

Conclusion

We now have covered what is a document when Google refers to it.