RE: Search for text

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

    > Basic stuff  here. Sorry if this has been asked before:-
    > - Can one search for text at the location of the point? If a point is
    > within word "foo" I'd like to C-s <something> so that I dont have to
    > enter that word when promted for a search term

    C-s C-w

    > - I'd like to be able to search for say ^[a-g] with regular
    > expressions. Can any one point me to the location of the info doc?

    C-u C-s ^[a-g]

Alternatively: `C-M-s' (then `C-s' for subsequent searches of the same
pattern).

    > - Finally I'd like to have all matching terms stay highlighted a bit
    > longer. C-s does highlight terms, but as soon as I C-v to look down
    > the page it's gone.

    M-x customize-variable RET lazy-highlight-cleanup RET

BTW, if you don't mind venturing beyond vanilla Emacs, you might also like
to try the crazy searching available with Icicles. This tells the story,
with screenshots:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles_-_Search_Enhancements#IciclesS
earchCommands.