Today I realized that something changed again in Google search results. A while ago Google added instant search, social search improvements, and thumbnails; now Google has added a word count in search results. It is not 100% accurate but close enough. Google will count all words on a page, not just in the content area. So if you have a lot of text in your sidebar, Google will count it as well.
So how does this improve Google search quality and SEO? I don’t know yet. But from my quick search tests, articles with higher word counts seem to rank higher — just my opinion based on quick and dirty research. More advanced research might be necessary.