[BoardTracker]

We think that search is very important tool for people in a discussion board. For guests as well. It is many times a way for them to find out how useful the board is and serves as a good justification to signing up for a board. Saves them the need to try google (or BoardTracker ) instead. As some of you here said, its annoying to find a board with search disabled. Many times though the reason it is disabled for guests is because the built-in search mechanism on boards (on all board software types) is a server killer.

We'd be happy to help out with solving such issues with the help of a mod we developed, which integrates BoardTracker search results into your board, or help with any technical issues you may be experiencing as your system grows regardless of BoardTracker.

You can see big boards such as boards.ie or rpg.net which use this mod happily.
I guess you can also mod that mod to supply guests with search while if you want, keep the internal board search for registered members, although you might find results with the mod somewhat more relevant and responsive for registered members as well.

If there is anything we can help with, we would be happy to hear from you.