Party search feature useless?

[Solonuke]

I've been playing this game for about 3 months and there's something that has struck me while playing the game. Very few actually uses the search feature to make parties and so on. Instead they shout in Uldah. I'm going to give my first impression about the search feature because I think it's confusing to use.

There's the normal search feature and there's the recruit option which is hidden beneath the party menu. For me this feels like two different search menus. I want to look after a party, how do I do that? How do I look after a party without looking up a guide how to look after one? I tried the party recruit option beneath the Party menu. What if I don't want to recruit members but to look after a party for specific purpose?

Let's say I want to seek for an invite to a primal group for let's say Ifrit. I go from Party -> Recruit -> Select "Primal Battle" under "Purpose" -> Select "Location: none" from "Location" (does this mean it will hire people anywhere or nowhere? I'm confused) -> Select "The Bowl of Embers (Hard)" -> Press button Conditions -> Select "Any" under Class (why couldn't it just say "Location: Anywhere" instead of "none" under "Locations"?) -> Select 50~50 from "Level" and number "7" -> Press Message -> Write a message under "Recruitement Message" -> Finally hit the button "Begin Recruiting".

When I hit "Conditions" and "Message", the menu expands. Why couldn't it just stay static in the first place? How can I find out how many people are interested in the fight? When I enter the Party menu again, I click on "Search" and I get a few drop down boxes that says "Purpose", "Location" and "Class". All I want to do is to seek out other people that want to do Ifrit, easy right?

I select "Primal Battles" under "Purpose" -> Select "Location: none" from Location -> Then I select... Why can't I select "Any" class and why are some classes faded out and not possible to click on? In fact I can only search for people on classes I myself have unlocked. So I select "Lancer" from "Class" and then "Begin Search". I only find myself. I'm unsure whether or not I have done this right or not. Either I have done all of this wrong or I have done everything right and nobody uses this feature, I can't tell for sure.

I haven't used the Search function much, but I can tell that very few are using it. Most of the stuff is hidden beneath sub menus which looks similar to other menus. When I hit the button "Close" in "Party" menu, I expect the menu to close but instead I get up my recruitment message. You can probably tell that I don't know how to use the party search feature. How many friends do you know that can use this search feature?

[Skies]

Actually, Solonuke.
The "Search" function is the partner to the "Recruit", in there you don't search for a player to fill your party, you search for a party to join. So using the Search function will search the parties that are open for Recruit which fit the criteria.

[SuzakuCMX]

According to some JP players in my LS, the JP players on Aegis actually use the Search/Recruit feature....

[Taika]

There's actually a pretty good guide for using the party search feature in the Lodestone player guides.

I wish people would use the function more, it's not that bad really. Every time I recruit people for EXP or primal fights or w/e I always check the search system first and invite people through that.

[indira]

search function is going to waste i usually see a handfull of people using it at the most @_@

[Randelmire]

It's going to be changed for something better in 2.0 anyway

[Hysterior]

I use it and always end up with JP only parties
only JP people seems to be using it

[Godsleftsock]

JPs use it all the time in their shouts too. They let you know what they are doing and you join through the search function. Type in the leader's name and if you fit what they need it automatically puts you in the party. I actually like it a lot.

[Leo_Hart]

not saying Primal fight, the 'party search feature' already beat EN PUG up.

[Alhanelem]

One thing the search function is being used for recently is enabling people hunting items for repeat runs of boss fights to rejoin their party when they are finished without having to ask the leader for an invite.