I've not really noticed the search function being that slow. I suggest you need to clean out your internet connection with some cotton buds - all the spam is obviously clogging it up !
What I have noticed, however (as always, dragging the off-subject topic even further off-subject) is the number of times that Peoplesoft Connections is now leading me to Oracle URL's - I noticed that most of the 8.12 documentation is now on the Oracle side of the fence. Are we FINALLY going to ditch the crappy Peoplesoft Connection website ? Its still the slowest POS I've ever seen.