iFilters

Add iFilters to Index Unstructured Content
From the SharePoint best Practices Manual

      Most unstructured content is locked up inside files. Although we can find this content by
      searching for metadata that was collected and indexed when the file was added to SharePoint
      Products and Technologies, we’ve already discussed how requiring too much metadata can
      lead users to look for other ways to store their content. One way to overcome the limitation of
      searching only by metadata is to index the contents of the files themselves. But to do this, you
      need to be able to read the contents of the file. iFilters are small programs that make it possible
      for SharePoint to read the contents of files so that they can be indexed. iFilters are usually
      made available by the company that programmed the software that creates the file. Microsoft
      has pre-loaded iFilters for most of its own file formats into SharePoint Products and Technolo-
      gies, but there are exceptions. For example, iFilters for Microsoft Visio and Microsoft One Note
      are not part of the default load for SharePoint Products and Technologies. Third-party file for-
      mats like Adobe Acrobat and Open Office are also not pre-installed. If you use these programs
      in your environment, you should consider loading the iFilter for the appropriate format.

I would also add that as of date few iFlilers are 64 bit and one should generally deploy the Search Engine as 32 bit if there is any chance of having to run iFilters/

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