Google has disabled the list of ‘stop words’. What does it mean?

[Alcogooglic]

For a long time Google ignored ‘stop words’ in query; you had to use a "+" sign to include stop words in your search: ( [google.com...] [webmasterworld.com...] )
Now Google is allowing you to search for ‘stop words’, i.e. you may put merely ‘the’ instead of ‘+the’ to evaluate the size of index (3,760,000,000), and much more…

Can anyone explain why?

[chris_f]

There are probably alot of reasons behind this, although I'm not too convinced at the minute. It is a better move I feel and will help both new and advanced users of Google.

Chris

[Mohamed_E]

Not sure what you mean. I did a search for widgeting in location and, as usual, got:

> "in" is a very common word and was not included in your search.

[Receptional Andy]

I don't see this either - stop words are still disabled in my searches.

[martinibuster]

Not happening.

The following words are very common and were not included in your search: the on.

[Alcogooglic]

>> Not sure what you mean.

Try a query of stop words only:
the
how to
...

The sign '+' is not necessary anymore

[vincevincevince]

Search : how to widget

The following words are very common and were not included in your search: how to.

[vitaplease]

Alcogooglic

where was I when

Not sure what you mean, but that has been around for a while as mentioned in the thread you quoted in your initial post. (second page).

where was I when cat

etc.

[Alcogooglic]

Search: how to
10,900,000 results.

[vincevincevince]

what i think is more interesting is these stop word only searches are not being handled like normal searches, for example try:

allintext:"the the"

and apart from the #1 result, almost every site does not contain the exact phrase "the the", and the band The The doesn't come up in the top ten at all save the #1 result!

[dmorison]

I don't think a search of stop words only has ever had the filter turned on.

There also apears to be some up front intelligence that includes stop words when they are relavent to the rest of the query, for example "The Who".

[coconubuck]

I checked it for both phrases and by just using those specific stop words. I think the good folks at google already planned for that sort of thing. I still got "in is very common" and when I typed just those stop words, it didnt block them. I dont see any change from the norm.

[dmorison]

for example "The Who".

DOH! That is just two stop words. Fancy naming a band after two stop words.

[pixel_juice]

>>Fancy naming a band after two stop words.

There's a band called 'the the' too, Don't these people know anything about SEO? ;)

[Alcogooglic]

>> I don't think a search of stop words only has ever had the filter turned on.

A week ago and earlier I had to use a "+" sign in a query composed only of ‘stop words’, otherwise Google returned “no results”. At present, the "+" sign is not necessary anymore. So, the question is: How many popular keyword combinations can be composed of ‘stop words' only? For example:
How to
How can I
Where is that (this)
Who is who
Who is who in
Who is who in www
Who is who in .com
…
…

[stormy]

In my experience, for searches in Spanish, stop words _do_ matter, despite the message about them being ignored. It's been like that for a long, long time.