This is a simple idea but I had never thought about it until now, so maybe some people may benefit from it:
I always thought NIP-50 (search) was a hackish solution to an insurmountable problem, that of "global search". In order to search for something one must be like Google, one must index the entire network, it's centralizing and so on. And because of that it made little sense for normal relays to implement such a thing.
I just now realized, after using nostr:npub1dergggklka99wwrs92yz8wdjs952h2ux2ha2ed598ngwu9w7a6fsh9xzpc's https://search.dergigi.com/ many times, that the majority of searches are scoped by author, therefore it makes total sense for a client to query the author's outbox relays and send search queries to them directly instead of to some nameless global search engine -- which means that it makes total sense for small relays, personal relays, and random outbox relays of any kind to support search REQs.
Likewise, it also makes sense for custom relays that act as feeds to support NIP-50.
It makes sense to search for things in specific relays, for example, if one is often browsing such relays' feeds, and want to recall something they saw at some point.
And, of course, if a relay has a specific community or theme around it makes sense to search for it to learn what such community has said about a topic.
I use Primal’s search for the same specific reason: finding a note I remember a user posted using a keyword.
If you're following the correct number of people (200) it sometimes may also make sense to send a full "outbox search" to, say, 70 different relays in case you want to search for something you saw by someone you follow, for example.
I guess it wouldn't be too bad even if you were following more people.
the future of nostr is not global, it's community, person, and wot, based
also just heard of ants for the first time... it's perfect...... it just works
