AFAIK LW is set to search in the immediate area vaguely determined by language & culture. In earlier versions of LW there was an extra option in regards to this. So thus to my understanding OOB (Out of bound) search is out of the immediate area which I suspect is best used for searching for rarer files or files that might belong to other languages. So what you suggested might hold some weight here. Since I am surrounded by south east asian cultures that don't sit in the middle of the ocean. And I am aware I get uploaders (& downld from) people from SE Asia, USA, Europe, etc. basically all over. But the majority are probably more on my side of the time line or side of the map ... whoever drew it up. If it was the chinese then it's read right to left & not left to right. If it was by the english then it was definitely right to wrong way of doing it. lol