I argued in Too Big to Browse; Too Small to Search, that search works best when it has a large amount of content to work with. But it occurs to me that there is a really important caveat to be made, which I can best express as the difference between findability and searchability.
The distinction I want to make is not clear in the common usage of the words “find” and “search”. They are often used as synonyms, particularly in computer interfaces. But I think there is nevertheless a significant difference in the connotations, which points to a significant distinction we should pay attention to when we think about the findability of our content.