Question:

What are the Differences between Sidebar, Advanced, and Global Search in Salesforce?

Answer:

All searches in Salesforce share the following features 

• Saves recent results
• Auto-orders results based on the user's frequency of access
• Ability to use Wildcards: Asterisk (*) for matching one or more characters, Question mark (?) for matching single characters
• Ability to use Operators --(AND/OR/NOT), Parenthesis and quotation marks
• Option to limit searches to records owned by the user
• Custom object records are searched only if there is a custom tab associated with the custom object that is also visible to the user.

Sidebar Search Scope of the Search

• Usually only standard SFDC fields For Custom Objects
• All custom auto-number fields (eg, Name of a Call) and custom fields that are set as an external ID
• All custom fields of type email and phone
• Fields of type text, text area, long text area, and rich text area are not searched upon
• Search terms are treated as a phrase search

Example: Searching for [Clinton Ackerman] returns records with Clinton Ackerman, but not Clint Ackerman.

Advanced Search Scope of the Search

• More record types and fields than Sidebar Search - Can select which objects get searched For Custom Objects
• Includes all the same fields as Sidebar search
• Fields of type text, text area, long text area, and rich text area are also included in the search 
• Search terms are separated by letter, number, and punctuation boundaries
• Search terms are treated as separate words that may be found in different fields but within the same record -Separate terms have an implicit AND unless otherwise specified

Example: Searching for [Clinton Ackerman] returns records with Clinton Ackerman, but also Clinton Smith who has an email address of csmith@ackerman.com.

Global Search Scope of the Search

• Searches all fields (including Solutions, Documents, and Articles) Features
• Auto-orders results based on the frequency of records viewed
• Auto-orders the object results based on most commonly viewed objects
• Can toggle between Exact Phrase and Separate Term searches
• Search terms are treated as separate words that may be found in different fields but within the same record
• Search terms are separated by letter, number, and punctuation boundaries
• Separate terms have an implicit AND unless otherwise specified

Example: Searching for [Clinton Ackerman] returns records with Clinton Ackerman, but also Clinton Smith who has an email address of csmith@ackerman.com.

Related Documentation:

Salesforce Help Documentation: Salesforce Advanced Search compared to Standard Search

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