Searching for clarity

So, anyway, I'm laying odds that Prok is close to right on Search.

I expect it is being moved outside LL. What I still don't know yet is whether it is going into a single set of hands, or whether we'll all potentially have read access to the information currently used by Search. I haven't seen any discussion of Search on the official scripter mailing list. I suspect some of the Electric Sheep know something, the answer I got was intrigingly NDA-alicious. And the timing of that post... It is also possible that read access will be opened up, but that some organizations will get the first crack at it. Features showcase much better when there's a polished toy using them, and LL has given economic advantages to favorites in the past.

My biggest fear right now isn't who may have it or first access to the information. I'm worried with the suggestion that it is coming out of a libSecondLife project. When it comes down to it, I'm neither for nor against the project myself. I'm a realist. People are going to reverse-engineer, the question is whether or not they're comfortable letting the public know what they're doing.

What concerns me up is if new search capabilities come out of reverse engineering instead of thru open access. Unless the client is passing a much wider search than is reasonable (ie, if the SQL for various searches is embedded in the client) then any created search is going to be adding quite a load to the DB. Even if the client is passing a wide search, it is possible the DBs are optimized for the current ones. Unoptimized searches of large DBs eat resources.