SERPs and "common" words

searching w/ vs. w/out common words

[lachtzu]

Why are the Google SERPs different when I do a search that includes common words (that Google says it drops) vs. when I do the same search myself, omitting the common words?

I tried several examples of widget searches that actually do return matching results. But when I do them on my real search, the # of returns is the same, but the rankings are very different.

Anyone experience this and know what's going on?

[4eyes]

A search for 'information on widgets' is seen as 'information stopword widgets" not 'information widgets'

If you search for 'information at widgets', 'information to widgets' etc they will all show the same results as 'information on widgets'