How do I use the GUI to search for files in GNOME?

On the command line I regularly use locate, or more often a locate x | grep y pattern to find a file I know exists but can't find!

I'd like something that did this quickly in the GUI. Can't find it if it's there.

Here's my confusion

• In the applications/overview I can see Search and Indexing. This seems to be a configuration tool. But if this is a server, I can't find a client.

• In applications I find Nepomuk File Indexing -- I think this is a KDE thing? Ditto, no client?

• I've installed tracker. This is a strange mix of powerful and unreliable/limited. e.g. it doesn't find files like locate does (returns no results where locate returns 96 results), but is will unpack every tag I've added to my photos! And you can't limit by folder for a quick search within a folder.

• The old Gnome 2 Search for files... thing is not in the Accessories menu anymore.

I feel that this is basic/core-level functionality and I can't help feeling I'm missing something obvious.

There are several ways you can do this.

1. Open Files and click the Search button. This is the easiest and recommended choice since it's installed by default.
2. Or you can install gnome-search-tool
3. Or you can install tracker-gui

Catfish

You can also install catfish package (written in Python):

Catfish is a search GUI powered by locate and find behind the scenes, with autocompletion from Zeitgeist and locate. The advanced options allow filtering by date and file type. The interface is intentionally lightweight and simple, using only GTK+.

References

• Official site (on Launchpad)
• Catfish on Two Toasts

I was also looking for this myself as I find Unity too slow (Ubuntu 12.10). Best thing I've found so far is Synapse. Ctrl + Spacebar to activate once installed.