I think the difference is between mail stored locally versus remote Gmail. Mail.app’s Gmail searching is subpar compared to the main web interface. It’s probably not Mail.app’s fault, but that’s what keeps me using the web version as opposed to using Mail.app (for that account).
Could be. I use a true IMAP server for personal mail and Exchange for corporate, and have it set up so I have a copy of all my mail locally, in part BECAUSE of the excellent search.
The frequent example is pretty crazy. I work for a small software company. We have a low-cost product that we sell that uses actual license keys we have to generate. The task of actually generating those keys, and thus doing the formal "this is your delivery" emails, falls to me b/c it involves SQL. Takes 2 minutes, so nobody wants to spend the time writing a front end for it, etc. Familiar story I'm sure.
Anyway, so I send out the fulfillment mails. Boss always gets a copy. They always have a PO number in the subject line. He'll search his Outlook, and VERY VERY OFTEN Outlook can't find it. I'll search MY mail in Mail.app, and can forward it back to him in seconds. I've watched him do it. I've duplicated the failure myself -- I have true-blue Outlook running in a VM, bc sometimes you need it for calendar stuff -- and it just plain fails. A LOT.
It sure seems like "search" would be an important part of a good email client, but Microsoft appears to disagree.
