Nautilus currently has a useful ctrl-s feature that selects certain
files in the current folder. However, as pointed out here*, there is no
real way to do anything with the result. Here is my proposition to tweak
the process.

Similar to the quicksearch in firefox/gedit, a small hidden bar pops up
on shortcut and lets the user find files given a pattern in the current
folder. Two tick boxes are present, one to force case matching, and the
other to hide non matching files. Hiding non matching files just results
into files being hidden until they match the pattern or the pattern is
cleared. This box should be off by default - someone accidentally hiding
files who doesn't know about this could get annoyed.

I suppose this could easily get nice plugins such as an advanced search
with further options such as searching further folders for files (=>
list view), etc. I think such a feature would be a great asset and would
give Nautilus a lot of the love it needs**.

Side note; Think of differentiating search and foldersearch the way they
are differentiated in most web browsers today: "Page" search is fast,
gives what you want instantly. "Full" search is slower and the results
need to be doublechecked.

* http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/6155/
** http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/6167/