How to manage search results?

Hi

I was wondering how others manage search results.

We do it now like this:
each user has a predefined table for holding the results (a list of
IDs). When user is created/deleted,
this table (query_results_$user_id) is created/deleted too. If this
table is deleted by mistake (by hand),
one cannot perform a search anymore.

problems:
* you have to remember to create/delete table each time user is
created/deleted (not too hard)
using a temporary table with aa unique name determined at runtime would
be better
* If there are more types of searches you run into problems.
results from deleted members are hold in the same table, so
when you go to search screen for normal members you'll
see there are x results.

Proposal so far: when going to search page check if there's a temporary
table name set to be used
for holding results for that search type (members, deleted_members, ...)
If not, determine a name (random, check if it already exists in db),
keep it in a session variable and create that table.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!
--
Marius Andreiana
Web Development Group, Inc.