From the Beta Labs blog post:
Universal Search has been designed to make it easier and faster to find on-device . With one query you can now find things like contacts, messages, music on a Nokia phone, or in Nokia apps like Maps and Store, and on the web. Getting the right result quickly is the key to a good Search app. Universal Search continually learns from the device’s location, usage and user preferences to deliver the most relevant results in milliseconds.
We’ve been testing the Search client for several weeks as part of a closed trial. This latest client addresses many of the issues identified by early beta testers. So we invite you to give it a try and let us know what you think!
Universal Search replaces the built-in Search widget/system in Symbian^3. Rather oddly, the version number appears to be going backwards. Remember this is beta software though, so you have to take the odd chance... After installation, the existing 'Search widget' is joined by 'Search', 'Smart Apps' and 'Smart Contacts'. The latter two present your most used applications (though the metric used to determine this isn't 100% clear) and your most called Contacts (ditto, presumably the number of calls made).
On the device homescreen you then have three widgets available. From top to bottom, a universal search box. It'll find anything in your primary data (apart from emails), any app, any setting, any places in Ovi Maps, anything in the Nokia Store, anything on the wider Internet, you get the idea... Rather neatly, matches are presented instantly, i.e. it's quickmatching as you type.
Something similar is built into most Blackberrys, of course, this idea isn't new. In fact, it's very evidently just the next evolution of the standard Symbian 'across all apps' Search function - but it's nicely done.
One curiosity is that the built-in Anna keyboard isn't used. Possibly because this is an application that started out on generic Symbian^3 and hasn't been recompiled to use Anna's features yet. Again, note that all this is very much beta software and that Nokia needs your feedback.
Here we click through from a patch for "Pink" to an application in the Nokia Store. Essentially, this is Nokia Search on steroids and with far better Internet integration. Clearly there's work to be done in recompiling for Anna and the new Belle interface, plus work to do integrating email, but this is a great start.
Although I never found I used Search much in Symbian smartphones, nor in Palm PDAs ten years ago, I suspect this is more down to my old (and bad?) habits of starting the search for information within the relevant application rather than letting the machine take the strain. With Universal Search built into device firmwares in the future, maybe this 'type and you shall find' functionality will become as ubiquitous as it was on Palm OS and as it is in Blackberry OS.
Here's the official launch video, which will give you an idea of other things that Universal Search is designed to address.