Gmail now searches within attachments

The Gmail inbox for many of us living in the cloud is the equivalent of a disorganized, overstuffed purse: you know what you’re looking for is in there, but sometimes it’s hard to search through all the used kleenex (spam) and receipts (newsletters.) But today Gmail received an update that will help users find specific attachments: Google now searches through text inside attachments. Previously, users could only search within text tiles. Now Gmail can comb through Microsoft Office files and PDFs.  This is especially handy for files you emailed to yourself, but neglected to add a subject line or anything in the body.

While some complain about Apple being the worst offender at offering features much later than the rest of the market (think copy and paste or LTE), it’s important to note in this specific case that Google is last to offer this functionality: Outlook and Yahoo have had this functionality for years.  It should be working now, but older attachments may not be indexed yet.