Maybe I am missing something, but it seems to me that the forums can't be searched using the search box at the top of the page. I feel that would be useful, because as time progresses more and more topics and questions are likely to have been covered before.

1) You are right and I couldn't agree more.

2) Regular web search engines can be used to search the Photosynth forums. I wrote up a little guide on it at Gary Mortimer's Photosynth fansite here: http://photosynth.ning.com/profiles/blogs/on-searching-the-photosynth

(As a side note, the official forums here on the site are actually the second official Photosynth forum. From August 2008 when Photosynth launched through February 2009, the official Photosynth forum was found at http://getsatisfaction.com/livelabs/products/livelabs_photosynth and did|does have the ability to search.)

3) Ironically, you are not alone in asking for this. =)

http://photosynth.net/discussion.aspx?cat=01b6f15f-42eb-49cb-a221-ed56615e1c47&dis=3a609d46-3b0b-40fd-bbba-6c02d4769b2b

http://photosynth.net/discussion.aspx?cat=01b6f15f-42eb-49cb-a221-ed56615e1c47&dis=be3f1854-1fc2-4462-bf4d-a3a7730f351f

http://photosynth.net/discussion.aspx?cat=01b6f15f-42eb-49cb-a221-ed56615e1c47&dis=6bd961f7-5f1b-462c-b90d-09dc929a1c24

http://getsatisfaction.com/livelabs/topics/photosynth_forums_update

http://photosynth.net/discussion.aspx?cat=01b6f15f-42eb-49cb-a221-ed56615e1c47&dis=0afa8981-396f-4998-8fb0-255c94d4cb26

http://photosynth.net/discussion.aspx?cat=01b6f15f-42eb-49cb-a221-ed56615e1c47&dis=ef728955-3f61-4258-9284-25bf9f364738

yeah, yeah we know.  Its on the backlog...