I have finally found a free search program that does most of what is needed for improved package searching. The new searching uses swish++. It is very simple, but well thought out.
Please check the 'Search Package Directories' section at http://cgi.debian.org/www-master/debian.org/distrib/test and send me any feedback. It adds the ability to restrict the search on package names only (done using META keywords) and to use substrings, e.g. libgtk* . This last item is what people have been screaming for. Hopefully swish++ will implement more general regex in the future. If people are happy with it, I'll make it the default search method and get rid of htdig. Jay Treacy
