Google stop words

[lots0]

Ok, I know the title may be a little harsh, but it’s true.

I know we have all seen google put this at the top of the page when you use “stop words”.
"to" is a very common word and was not included in your search.
(I am using the stop word “to” to demonstrate, but it is the same for all the other “stop words” we tested)

Using google search for this phrase (without the quotes) “go to holland” now open a new window and search for the same phrase, just omit the word “to” from the search string.

Surprise, Surprise.. The results are DIFFERENT between the two sets of queries, even though google says, and I quote, “"to" is a very common word and was not included in your search.”

So in fact the word “to” was included in the search... and google is in fact not telling the truth.

So, just what does this mean for SEO? Anything? I have my ideas what are yours?

[seomike]

The results have done that for a long time. Maybe GG can explain the word promminence in the search algo and at what point in the query operation are the stop words filtered out.

Orion?
GG?
Someone??

:D

[search10]

No, the word is not included in the search, but the STOP is.

word1 to word2 is the same as word1 a word2, and they are different than word1 word2 which has no stop component in the query.

No lie here, you just misunderstood the meaning of their sentence.

[krisval]

From Google:
Google ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results.

From Dictionary.com

ig·nore ( P ) Pronunciation Key (g-nôr, -nr)
tr.v. ig·nored, ig·nor·ing, ig·nores
To refuse to pay attention to; disregard.


I think it is incorrect to say thay this is a misunderstanding. I also don't think it is an intentional lie. If you look at Google's explanation plus the definition of Ignore, it is very clear that according to Google, a user should get the same query with or without stop words.

Could just be a technical issue due to speed and algorithm for filtering out stop words.

[RichardZ]

Hi,

I wrote an article about this a few months ago... I believe there are some contextual algorithms in play here.

Context in Search article (http://www.metamend.com/article-google-holes.html)

I hope that it deals with the exact question you seem to be asking...

Please email me to let me know if it answered the question for you.

Thanks,

Richard

[search10]

"it is very clear that according to Google, a user should get the same query with or without stop words."

No that is jumping to an illogical conclusion. They ignore the word, which means you should expect to get the same result for
raise the flag
as
raise a flag

They don't say they ignore the stop.

In any case, after you do the search it is obvious what they mean.

[krisval]

They don't say they ignore the stop

Stop as defined by the first poster = "common words"

Ingore as defined in the dictionary means disregard. Not to acknowledge it at all.

Logic is 100% sound and Google's statement is not representative of your examples. You should read the post from the RichardZ which supports my original suggestion that it is due to algorithm issue (from above link) "How Google treats these phrases demonstrates a fault within their algorithms".

We have to remember that Google's statement is intended for the general public and not webmasters. A general user would simply think that the words were not taken into account at all for the query. Nor would they care for that matter. The general public would never go to lengths to determine that they could get other results by not including stop words at all.

[Chris_D]

<Mod hat off>

<aside>Is it just me, or does anyone else see the funny side of a poster with the nic 'Microsoft' defending Google in this thread? </aside>

:)

</Mod hat on>

Back to the stop words discussion.....

[seomike]

absolutely hillarious :D Since when did microsoft help the competition.

[search10]

They need the help.

Not on this point though. The meaning is obvious, and if you just read the explaination there isn't anything else to talk about.