Exclude taxonomy terms from search_excerpt in snippet
The search result is a node view and hence the hook_node_view_alter works for it.

So you would could create a custom module and write the following function

function custom_node_view_alter(&amp;$build, $type)
{
    if (($build['#view_mode'] == 'search_result') &amp;&amp; ($type = 'node'))
    {
        unset($build['field_tags']);
    }
}


change the field_tags to the name of your taxonomy field in the content type.

$build['#view_mode'] this variable defines the view we are on. In this case we are on the search_result view. And the $type defines the module in this case it is the node. 

Use the following for Drupal 6

function custom_nodeapi(&amp;$node, $op, $a3, $a4) {


  switch ($op) {
     case 'search result':
          $node = node_load($node-&gt;nid);
        $node-&gt;build_mode = NODE_BUILD_SEARCH_RESULT;
        $node = node_build_content($node, FALSE, FALSE);
        $node-&gt;body = drupal_render($node-&gt;content);
      break;
  }
}