Ever see a button somewhere with a handmade sign on it reading something like "Don't push this button. Use that one over there -->"? For some reason I'm thinking of that right now.

Me too, up till about last week. And the behavior doesn't seem to be different whether hitting <Enter> in the search box or clicking the <Search> button. And it doesn't seem to matter what browser I'm using. Chrome, rekong or Firefox on Kubutu. N9 default browser -- whatever that one was called. Microb on N900.

Ya, I had considered this. I can really break powersearch completely by turning on Google Ajax blocking in Ghostery (or by disabling JavaScript): the searchbox and button won't appear at all. But that makes perfect sense.

So I tried disabling the various adblockers and anti-trackers. And in my rekonq attempt, I didn't install any blockers at all.

The weirdest thing is that powersearch sometimes works whether I click the button or hit <Enter>. Occasionally on the first try, but sometimes after many attempts. And is doesn't always fail the same way. Sometimes I see "No Results". Sometimes I see nothing. Sometimes nothing except the little orange horizontal line. The inconsistency is the real headscratcher.

At this point, I'm wondering if it's an aura thing.

I joined this forum in mid 2012 and non-working Power Search was among the first things I noticed. I never paid too much attention to it since I had the two other options that worked. I simply considered non-working Power Search a fact of life and never used it.

This thread renewed my interest and just confirmed what I had known for the past three years. Power Search Does Not Work™.

All my experiments in post #3 were conducted by pressing the Search button. None of them by pressing Enter.

I conducted all my experiments in post #3 using Firefox on Windows. The above comment by HtheB about different browser has made me thinking and repeated the same experiments using also IE, Saifish Browser and MicroB.

Ironically, the SFOS browser was the only one that has produced any results at all.

No.

Could Power Search be yet another one of those things that only work for some privileged users? I've had a few discussions with members who also happened to be moderators who could not undersdtand how could I be so blind (or stupid ) and not see the obvious, until I showed them that the thing I see when I log in are not the same as the thing they see when they log in.

What he said! And that probably google changed the api, no idea yet... and NO Powersearch is even there without being logged in.

As of sometime in the last few days, Powersearch is now working properly every time for me. I haven't changed anything in any of my setups that I know of, but it's functioning as expected . . .

Of course, as they say: "Anything that gets better by itself can get worse again by itself". Hoping not.

Have to say I experienced some oddity with power search on Jolla and N9 one of the last days: no result at all.

Works fine over here.. (press the search button instead of 'Enter' key, which can cause ending up in no results using some browsers)

Confirmed. And I hate the sfos browser for that behaviour

BUT:
now I really believe pichlo as I experience same oddities more often.
Right now I do not get any search result, neither with power search nor with normal search (top right).
Power search just does not react at all (it looks like). Neither on Enter nor on button click. At least no result is shown.
Normal search just does not react, shows completely white page or what makes me believe techstaff should have a look: with WebCat on Jolla I got that little nice popup.
Tested on Jolla, N9 and also trusty N900.

Resetting indexes now, this may take a couple of hours - last time long search patterns did return an empty page happened few months after infra move, also amount of returns had to be reduced as stuff like "nokia" in your search pattern stalls the search engine and aborts after the regular php timeout. If you do not get along, use google website on its own, we are properly indexed there and you will get results from wiki too.