After a couple long weeks of programming, testing, and experimenting, our new people search is up and running. 

The new search is entirely service driven - allowing the search to be performed through our new template system.  With an arbitrary search string, including network determined profile fields, people can now search for users with much more specific targetting.  For example, if a network has a profile field called 'favorite concert', a search can now target users with certain words in their favorite concert rather than their entire profile.

Another major addition is the ability to search for users in a geographical circle.  In other words, you can now find all users within X miles of a particular zip code.  This feature, combined with existing profile matching, should greatly enhance our search functionality.