Stop Words Stopped?

Until recently, Google would inform the searcher that stop words were omitted from their search.

Recently, this stopped happening.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=this+is+a+an+the+if&meta=

I wonder why USB.org ranks well for the search "this is a an the if"

 

Noticed that yesterday when I needed php.net's page on the for loop. With 99% of the function you type in Google 'PHP array_shift' for instance and the page you need is #1.

So I typed 'PHP for' but it didn't work but I didn't get notified like you said either.

So I reckon the words are still discarded, they just stopped bothering telling you.

 

I'm not sure about that, look at this:

google.ca/search?hl=en&q=a+the+that&meta= (funny #1 listing )

The keywords are still all highlighted in bold in the results like with Will's example.

 

maybe they are learning to read English better...

 

Try show me the money.

Notice how SHOW ME and MONEY are highlighted; THE is not.

Similarly, THE and OF aren't highlighted in the cost of living.

 

If you understand spanish you can have a look at this foros de posicionamiento a para por

for example.

Sorry, I can't post live links DP says

 

I meant this:
google.es/search?hl=es&q=foros+de+posicionamiento+a+para+por&btnG=B%C3%BAsqueda&meta=

 

Does removing the stop words help the search results?

Maybe the words were ignored in the past to save computing / disk space. Maybe today's cost are negligible.