we've added a "regexp"-box to the form to find series or automatas of characters in strings to use regexps as defined by the MySQL 4.x definition (done against the entire search query made by aol users but only against words). A "word" is a query element
Website performance is about two things: how fast the page loads, and how fast the code on it runs. Plenty of services will make your website load faster, from minimizers to CDNs, but making it run faster is up to you.