It would help if you could type in to go directly to a particular page rather than having to advance a couple pages at a time.  Maybe that's already available but I haven't been able to access it.

It is, just click the "page x of x" text and it will turn into a drop box with a "jump to" option to fill in the page # you want to go directly to.

Advanced search, results as posts?

Thanks, Nate!