With Sharepoint 2003 it has been very difficult to index content of csv files until now.
Working with Microsoft Premier Product Support they have come up with the genius idea of duplicating the txt sub keys to be used for csv or any other file type which can be read as txt
The process is as follows
Logon to your index server
1. Include the CSV file extension in the list of searchable file types by going to SITE SETTINGS –> SEARCH SETTINGS AND INDEXED CONTENT –> CONFIGURE SEARCH AND INDEXING –> INCLUDE FILE TYPES –> NEW FILE TYPE.
2. Find the CLS ID of the IFILTER for text (txt) files by going to the system registry:
A. On SPS 2003 Index Server, go to Start –> Run and type regedit and press enter. This should bring up the system registry.
B. GO TO HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE –> SOFTWARE –> Microsoft –> SPSSearch –> ContentIndexCommon –> Filters –> Extension –> .txt
C. Export .txt key. Edit and rename .txt to .csv and merge it.
D. This will add a new key named “.csv” at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE –> SOFTWARE –> Microsoft –> SPSSearch –> ContentIndexCommon –> Filters –> Extension
3. Restart the Microsoft SharePointPS Search Service.
4. Reset IIS (optional, but do it anyway).
5. Perform an incremental crawl