1. Scribd (already mentioned at SEJ) is a huge user-generated database of eBooks and community of writers. Due to the huge volume of eBooks it contains and also being user-generated (and thus used for self-promotion most of the time) in nature, it is not so easy to find something valuable there. You can try to browse its groups. There are several really cool groups there found for [SEO] search each containing really good books.
2. Google offers a nifty advanced operator allowing to search for any file types: {filetype:} or {ext:} - that’s my preferred way to search for eBooks and pdf reports (as well as search for anything actually). First, I am just used to Google search and secondly, Google search works the best for me: it returns most relevant results, can be customized and restricted with other advanced operators.
The only disadvantage of it is that it returns only one or two results from one domain (and thus you risk missing plenty of useful and important documents stored at popular eBook directories like Scribd).
3. PDFdatabase claims to contain more than 7 million pdf and doc files. The search is quite fast and focused. The search results are pretty self-explanatory: you will see the document name, size, the full URL, the related search tags and the download link:
(Tip credit to Addictive Tips)
Other similar PDF search engines you can check out: PDF search engine and PDFgeni.
Comments
9 responses so far ↓
Tamar Weinberg on Jan 7, 2009 at 11:35 am
Don’t forget SlideShare — that site has a great wealth of information!
Blog Expert on Jan 7, 2009 at 12:01 pm
That is awesome. I never knew there were web sites where you could search for a PDF. I have some things I can definitely search for so thanks again for another great web site find.
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Michael Martinez on Jan 8, 2009 at 1:38 pm
You can always combine a PDF search with a SITE search to find more listings from a single domain in Google (and you can combine multiple site searches, too).
Of course, Google won’t return everything in a SITE search, but you at least don’t have to settle for just 1 or 2 listings per domain.
InfoHQ.us on Jan 8, 2009 at 8:40 pm
At Scribd you can read many latest books for you to review their contents to enable you to decide whether to buy the printed copies.
Ann Smarty on Jan 9, 2009 at 6:28 am
@Tamar, great addition, thanks!
@Michael, valid point! I usually search ANY site this way (no matter if it has a search option of its own or not). However with Scribd, Google search gives too little info and you should click through almost any listing to check if it’s worth attention. Its internal search is much more detailed and thus more convenient, I guess.
Import to Russia on Jan 10, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Thanks and greetings! I have been looking for this information for days.
Cheap VPS @ $19.95 on Jan 26, 2009 at 7:27 pm
GREAT information on finding ebooks! TY very much Ann!
Karina on Jul 3, 2009 at 3:14 am
You can use http://pdfstack.com/ for search pdf&doc
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