For those of you who don't know the benefits of a Full Text search, I recommend reading Zend Developer Zone's Using MySQL Full-text Searching for an excellent overview as well as good examples that go way beyond the scope of this post.
This MOD involves changing a few files, as well as altering the PADDATA table to add a FULLTEXT index for the description field. This may cause your database footprint to increase a bit, so you may need to watch your database size closely especially if your site's host is limiting your database space.
A new choice will appear in the search form for Match: called "Best Match". This will cause the SQL queries to be built with the powerful MATCH() AGAINST() which will lead to much more predictable results. When search results are ordered by "Best Match", the item's matching strength is displayed in a box near the item's description field.
Also, when any other search has been executed, a new sort column "Best Match" will try to sort the data on the matching strength. When resorting to Best Match, the number of results will likely be different.
This MOD will also enhance the display for "New Listings" so that they can not be resorted.
