I didn't realize that the search function isn't going directly to replies. You're right, that's somewhat useless. Not only that, but when I was trying that I searched for "Showstring" which should generate just one hit in this forum, but it didn't. The search had no results. How can that be?

If the searches don't point to specific replies I can't imagine that consolidating threads would help. Even if it did, how many people who pose repetitive questions even use a search? That's a behavior that can be very difficult to instill in people.

One thing I do use quite often is the web browser's ability to search for text within a page. If you've got a specific term you're looking for hit Ctrl-f, and Ctrl-g to look for the next result. It's pretty handy when dealing with large amounts of information.