# Have searches changed? Searching on 2 letter words **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 9, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459 "2007-05-09T22:16:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459/1 "2007-05-09T22:16:44Z")
I know there has been problems with searches interupting the board performance. I noticed this and wondered if it could be contributing. It used to be, when I did my semi-annual vanity search on “Tastes of Chocolate”, the words “Tastes” and “Chocolate” would be highlighted in fancy red letters. No red coloring for “of”. I just ran my spring search, and every “of” was a cheerful red, in addition to the usual “Tastes” and “Chocolate”. Are 2 letter words now being searched on? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459/2 "2007-05-10T00:42:55Z")
Ran a search for “of.” Here’s what I got: > [@SDMB](#): > > The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search : of ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459/3 "2007-05-10T03:30:49Z")
Did you search with or without quotes? When I search for _Tastes of Chocolate_ (without quotes) the “of” gets ignored. But if I search for _“Tastes of Chocolate”_ the entire phrase is used, including the “of”. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459/4 "2007-05-10T08:56:28Z")
I think the search itself is only performed on valid words, but the highlighting includes all terms in the search string, so ‘of’ only coincidentally appeared in your search results, but because it was there, it was lit up red. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459/5 "2007-05-10T14:08:09Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] I think the search itself is only performed on valid words, but the highlighting includes all terms in the search string, so ‘of’ only coincidentally appeared in your search results, but because it was there, it was lit up red. [/QUOTE] This statement is at odds with the post directly above, unless you intend to mean a string of words that are enclosed in quotes. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459/6 "2007-05-10T15:49:41Z")
[QUOTE=Mbossa] Did you search with or without quotes? When I search for _Tastes of Chocolate_ (without quotes) the “of” gets ignored. But if I search for _“Tastes of Chocolate”_ the entire phrase is used, including the “of”. [/QUOTE] I searched on “Tastes of Chocolate” in quotes. In the past, only occurances of “Tastes” and “Chocolate” would be in red. This was the first time that all of the "of"s were highlighted. Mhh. just noticed this. The search is now searching INSIDE of quote boxes. It’s back? Yeah!!! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-searches-changed-searching-on-2-letter-words/403459/7 "2007-05-11T10:27:24Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] This statement is at odds with the post directly above, unless you intend to mean a string of words that are enclosed in quotes. [/QUOTE] I just tested it and it doesn’t seem to do it anymore - But I’m sure it used to be the case that the search engine would omit invalid search words (from an unquoted set of search terms) from the search process itself, but that the whole set of search terms - including those deemed invalid by the search engine would be passed through into the highlighting code in the URLs for returned search results.