For the last few versions of iOS, searching for something on your device was very easy — go the Home Screen and swipe left to right. If you try that in iOS 7, you will find that nothing happens. While I get the whole idea of redesigning the functionality for iOS 7, I also am a big believer in ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ But ‘fixed’ it is.
So how do you invoke a search in iOS 7? Most everything that I read on how to do it said to swipe down from the top of the screen. All that ever did was bring up Notification Center. Kind of frustrating. Then I found the secret — swipe down anywhere EXCEPT from the top of the screen. A search box will appear at the top of screen with a keyboard appearing at the bottom. Type in what you are looking for and the results will appear between the search box and the keyboard.
Thank you, this was driving me crazy. I had read, just as you stated above, to get to Search you now swipe down from the Top of the screen, and of course all it got was my notifications . Sometime I would be lucky and get the Search window but not very often. After reading you hint I no longer have any problem bringing up the Search window and I use it a lot. Again Thank You!