Clearly people are searching for 'freeverb' - why is it not returning the freeverb external? The intent of the user is obvious. How can the tool be updated to better serve the user?
Yes. I think this is a good argument for using wildcard search by default. We can add a checkbox for people who only want exact matches.
"panorama*" - if I go to deken.puredata.info and search for panorama and *panorama* in all 3 boxes nothing shows up. This seems like a useful thread for an external developer to follow up. Maybe people are looking for spatialization externals? Intriguing.
"opencv" - is there any existing opencv external? Seems like a useful signal for externals developers.
Honestly, I don't think anyone will write an external based on some "market data". We typically write externals because we find them useful or interesting and then make them available to other people.