GNOME 3.8 will feature a redesigned search which displays the results in a list. A new search settings panel will allow users to configure the GNOME Shell search: you can enable or disable searching for documents, files, contacts or boxes and so on as well as a way to configure search locations:
The new GNOME Shell 3.8 search results are provided by individual applications and selecting a result will open it in the respective application. There's a limit of 3 results per application in GS, but more can be displayed within the application.
And speaking of settings, there's also a new Privacy panel which lets the user configure what information is revealed in various locations like the lock screen, history (recent files) and so on:
Even though the design isn't the same, the new Search settings panel and the Privacy panel provide together more or less the same settings that are available in the Unity Privacy settings panel, so once again the Unity and GNOME Shell designers have similar ideas, although obviously, the implementations are different.
Below you can see the new GNOME Shell 3.8 (work in progress) search redesign:
(direct video link)
These new features are already available in the latest GNOME 3.8 development releases (3.7.x). GNOME 3.8 is scheduled to be released on March 27.
via / more info @ Cosimo’s blog