The search server has undergone a complete overhaul and things are looking much better and much more stable now. In the last two weeks we have:
- Upgraded the search engine to use Lucene 2.2 (we were using 1.0) I would expect a number of bugs and idiosyncrasies to go away now that we’re using an improved search engine. If you have a search bug pending, please take a minute to see if your bug still applies.
- Removed all numbered types from the indexes. For instance, if you wanted to search for a band previously you had to search for artype:1. Now you can search for type:group or type:person. In the release search languages, scripts, countries, type and status are now indexed using text strings.
- Purchased, installed and deployed a new search server with gobs of RAM. Searches are happening quite fast now.
For details on the new improved search syntax, please take a look at the search syntax page. If you find new bugs, please report them.
MetaBrainz Blog 
This is great, no more digging through code to find magic numbers!
Lucene 2.2? Funny! Why not 2.3.1 then? It was just released and is a lot better than 2.2.
Hi Otis!
Its nice to have a high priest of the cult of Lucene come by and visit! Thanks for all your hard work!
But, we’re using PyLucene, not straight out Lucene and PyLucene 2.3.x hasn’t been released yet.
But once it is released, I’m on it!