In Leopard and Snow Leopard Command+F or File > Find or using the Search bar in a Finder Window IS Spotlight, but with far more options to either widen or narrow the search than Spotlight on the menu bar. The Spotlight search on the menu bar is a minimal subset of the search options.

To put it another way Spotlight is the Swiss Army Knife of search tools that drives much of the "gee whiz" technology in OS X. Among other things Spotlight is:
  1. a quick tool for finding most files by name or content using the Spotlight bar on the menu bar
  2. It is Smart Folders in Finder that can be saved as automatic "indexes" to files anywhere on your Mac meeting criteria that you specify
  3. It is "Smart Playlists" in iTunes
  4. It is "Smart Albums" in iPhoto
  5. It is the search function in AddressBook, Mail, iCal, etc.
  6. It is the "Find" in Finder providing searches based on nearly 100 different criteria including such esoterica as:
    1. Album title for record albums
    2. Whether or not an image has an alpha channel
    3. Text content of an item
    4. Country where an item was created
    5. whether or not a file is invisible
    6. Whether or not to include system files
    7. Latitude or Longitude of an item such as an iPhoto image
    8. UserID of the owner of a file
    9. Encryption method used to make a file secure
    10. Video bit rate
    11. Version number of the item
Whether or not you consider all of this an improvement or not is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Personally I think it is a vast improvement over the Find function in the past and it works which is more than can be said for some of its predecessors.


"All you've got to do is own up to your ignorance
honestly, and you'll find people who are eager to
fill your head with information"
--Walt Disney