Without the correct filename extension, macOS appears unable to associate files with apps, preview then using QuickLook, or index them for Spotlight. But there’s more to determining file types than extensions, there’s also a little magic involved.
Spotlight
Structured data is common and essential in many situations. Despite prolonged attempts to structure text semantically, most that is indexed and searched has mark-up removed, and uses the lowest common denominator, plain text.
Adds file type identification to the Drop window, to help explain why Spotlight might misclassify a file and refuse to index its content as expected.
One JSON text file consistently found a search term that another contained, but could never find. How do some documents get fully indexed, but others don’t, and can’t be searched?
Spotlight’s search window provides ‘AsYouTypeTopHit’ ranked search, including a measure of recency, 3 opaque scores, related search, and hits across multiple search domains. Here’s how it does that.
From the outset, Spotlight has included websites and other items in ranked search, and local files listed exhaustively using filters. As we work with ever more data, ranking is becoming more important in our search methods.
Spotlight’s search window is incremental and ranks search results across many domains. How this works in practice, and why it may not be ideal when searching for files.
Two apps using Core Spotlight, compared with respect to indexing of new entries, and searching. Quick tests to tell whether an app uses Core Spotlight, and what that brings.
Because Spotlight and Core Spotlight are so different, you can’t tackle problems with corespotlightd using tools and techniques that work for Spotlight.
The phrase repeated throughout WWDC was ‘semantic search’. How does fit in with Spotlight, and how could it benefit those who aren’t so enthused by advanced AI?
The Eclectic Light Company 