Quotes are indeed still respected by Google: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 For exampl

Quotes are indeed still respected by Google: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 For example, this search without quotes doesn't mention Dennis Ritchie's NYTimes obituary on the first page of results: https://www.google.com/search?q=became+more+interested+in+computing+than+math https://www.google.com/search?q=became+more+interested+in+co... Add quotes and the obituary becomes the first result: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22became+more+interested+in+computing+than+math%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22became+more+interested+in...