Graphic designer Cody Sanfilippo has devised a new way to search with Spotlight on iOS. Why is this needed? Right now, it's not comprehensive, is very limited to a few stock apps, and above all does not sport an API. Sanfilippo proposes a solution to this problem, starting with more functionality for the current features. Music search results should have "Play" buttons instead of taking the user to the song in Music; phone numbers should appear in Contacts results; apps from the App Store should be included in search results; and the user interface should be reformed.
Unfortunately, as Sanfilippo says, the proposal "isn't Apple" because the corporation tends to keep things "as simple as possible". It's understandable, but there's a certain lacking of user experience with the current Spotlight. Apple could revamp things to make them much better in the next version of the OS, and hopefully they do.
These are just a few of the graphic designer's suggestions for "Spotlight 2.0". The things he mentions are features Apple should adopt, not ones that should be exclusive to the jailbreak community. Users have requested these features time and time again, and Apple is slowly making its way to the development of them all. However, progress seems stagnant, even with the latest version of iOS, which releases this Wednesday. Spotlight is one of the many things that can use a complete overhaul and other items on the list may look interesting, but search is vital to keeping the user experience good. Cody's theory is the best one yet, and it's worth looking in to.