Lates google.com’s change in algorithm is pretty weird. Because it gives a bigger importance for the sites reputation than the exact search term. And the only potential explanation is the increase on importance for localisation.
Explanation: You search a string “a b c” where a b c are separate words. Until recently, if you had a page optimised after abc and the competition was zero for that one, your page would come up. Now, it does not, because google prefers to show in the organic results sites with higher reputation that has only the word a or b or c. And this is not what you need. So much for the long tail.
Example: Trainingul parintilor eficace
If you search on google.com this string, it pops the following results:
On google.ro it shows a normal result, after the same search:
Is weird why on google.com it prefers other algorithm. Maybe this focus on localisation is becoming more and more important