Since I don't use Google search much anymore, and have my search history turned off anyway, I can't recall any specific examples from my own life. So, I searched and found internet threads like this one:
Where the complaint is that searching for "map accuracy" (in quotes) results in pages without that literal string in them, implying that Google is ignoring the quotes to give the user what it thinks is a better list of results.
But, when I try to duplicate this three year old problem, I can't replicate it, at least not on the first page of results.
And when I try to contrive my own example, searching for a literal phrase that would not exist in any web document (an example: "He beheld nonlinear radish-scented vestments") there are 0 results, which is exactly what I'd expect if Google was obeying the quotation marks.
So, this is probably not true anymore, and you've got me doubting my memory now, but I am still fairly certain that it has happened to many on multiple occasions. /shrug
I believe it's always been the case that quotes work. Here are 3 possible explanations for what you remember:
Google search will return results that match the quoted query only through invisible text. So you you might get a result that seems to not contain your text, but if you check the source code or the DOM, the text will be there, hidden.
When checking for equality, search will ignore certain punctuation and HTML. So your text might not be there exactly, but once punctuation is stripped, it's there.
In the time between Google crawling the page and you viewing it, the page may have been edited.
That SO example may be a case of the 2nd reason. For example a page saying
<title>Map Accuracy</title>
<p>Map accuracy is a measure of...
technically contains the text "accuracy map" once you strip out HTML and normalize whitespace and case.
Since I don't use Google search much anymore, and have my search history turned off anyway, I can't recall any specific examples from my own life. So, I searched and found internet threads like this one:
https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/144207/google-fo...
Where the complaint is that searching for "map accuracy" (in quotes) results in pages without that literal string in them, implying that Google is ignoring the quotes to give the user what it thinks is a better list of results.
But, when I try to duplicate this three year old problem, I can't replicate it, at least not on the first page of results.
And when I try to contrive my own example, searching for a literal phrase that would not exist in any web document (an example: "He beheld nonlinear radish-scented vestments") there are 0 results, which is exactly what I'd expect if Google was obeying the quotation marks.
So, this is probably not true anymore, and you've got me doubting my memory now, but I am still fairly certain that it has happened to many on multiple occasions. /shrug