Search by usergroup mod?

[Shelby]

Seems like I could only figure out two options to do this.

a.) Modifying the main "search.php" script to allow for searching by usergroups, and then having a watered down search function on the page I want it to actually link to that.

or

b.) Having the search feature send the data to a seperate, where I write my own search function for usergroups and display it using an existing template layout.

Option B was what my original plan was. However, if I were to do so it'd end up completely watered down, feature wise, compared to the abilities of the main search. And even with it watered down, it's a lot of code to write to do so. The "search" script for vB itself is a smidge under 3,000 lines.

I'd like to be able to hook into a function that just throws the results back, but there doesn't seem to be anything of the sort for me to use. So.. I'm not really sure which way to go right now. If we were to go with Option B, the field would really just search for (case-insensitive) literal instances of the words entered in the box. No support for "colour OR colour" type stuff, or anything. If you don't mind it being a simple search, I think that method would probably work best.

Honestly I'm not sure what to do.

Basically I just want to have a:

{search text field box} {pull down bar with the usergroup and then individual usernames from that usergroup} {search button}