Index: modules/search/search.admin.inc
===================================================================
--- modules/search/search.admin.inc	(revision 97)
+++ modules/search/search.admin.inc	(working copy)
@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@
   $form['indexing_settings']['minimum_word_size'] = array('#type' => 'textfield', '#title' => t('Minimum word length to index'), '#default_value' => variable_get('minimum_word_size', 3), '#size' => 5, '#maxlength' => 3, '#description' => t('The number of characters a word has to be to be indexed. A lower setting means better search result ranking, but also a larger database. Each search query must contain at least one keyword that is this size (or longer).'));
   $form['indexing_settings']['overlap_cjk'] = array('#type' => 'checkbox', '#title' => t('Simple CJK handling'), '#default_value' => variable_get('overlap_cjk', TRUE), '#description' => t('Whether to apply a simple Chinese/Japanese/Korean tokenizer based on overlapping sequences. Turn this off if you want to use an external preprocessor for this instead. Does not affect other languages.'));
 
+  $form['default_search_settings'] = array('#type'=>'fieldset','#title'=>t('Default Search Type'));
+  $form['default_search_settings']['default_search_type'] = array('#type'=>'textfield','#title'=>t('Enter the default search type'),'#default_value'=>variable_get('default_search_type', 'node'),'#description'=>t('This is the default search that is done when a user enters something in the search box.'));
+  
   $form['#validate'] = array('search_admin_settings_validate');
 
   // Per module settings
Index: modules/search/search.module
===================================================================
--- modules/search/search.module	(revision 97)
+++ modules/search/search.module	(working copy)
@@ -1068,6 +1068,7 @@
     '#default_value' => '',
     '#attributes' => array('title' => t('Enter the terms you wish to search for.')),
   );
+  $form['search_type'] = array('#type' => 'hidden', '#value' => variable_get('default_search_type','node'));
   $form['submit'] = array('#type' => 'submit', '#value' => t('Search'));
   $form['#submit'][] = 'search_box_form_submit';
   $form['#validate'][] = 'search_box_form_validate';
@@ -1080,7 +1081,8 @@
  */
 function search_box_form_submit($form, &$form_state) {
   $form_id = $form['form_id']['#value'];
-  $form_state['redirect'] = 'search/node/'. trim($form_state['values'][$form_id]);
+  $type = isset($form_state['values']['search_type']) ? $form_state['values']['search_type'] : variable_get('default_search_type','node');
+  $form_state['redirect'] = 'search/'. $type .'/'. trim($form_state['values'][$form_id]);
 }
 
 /**
Index: modules/search/search.pages.inc
===================================================================
--- modules/search/search.pages.inc	(revision 97)
+++ modules/search/search.pages.inc	(working copy)
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 /**
  * Menu callback; presents the search form and/or search results.
  */
-function search_view($type = 'node') {
+function search_view($type = '') {
   // Search form submits with POST but redirects to GET. This way we can keep
   // the search query URL clean as a whistle:
   // search/type/keyword+keyword
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
       // Note: search/node can not be a default tab because it would take on the
       // path of its parent (search). It would prevent remembering keywords when
       // switching tabs. This is why we drupal_goto to it from the parent instead.
-      drupal_goto('search/node');
+      drupal_goto('search/' . variable_get('default_search_type', 'node'));
     }
 
     $keys = search_get_keys();
@@ -52,6 +52,11 @@
     return $output;
   }
 
+  // get the default type from a variable
+  if ($type=='') {
+    $type = variable_get('default_search_type', 'node');
+  }
+  
   return drupal_get_form('search_form', NULL, empty($keys) ? '' : $keys, $type);
 }
 
@@ -130,7 +135,7 @@
     // Fall through to the drupal_goto() call.
   }
 
-  $type = $form_state['values']['module'] ? $form_state['values']['module'] : 'node';
+  $type = $form_state['values']['module'] ? $form_state['values']['module'] : variable_get('default_search_type', 'node');
   $form_state['redirect'] = 'search/'. $type .'/'. $keys;
   return;
 }