Actually we do something *sort* of like this with canned searches. We use custom fields for the members to enter various values that we want to be able to search on (to make sure that they are entered in a consistently formatted way) and then we provide links on a page that have a url like:
http://www.yoursite.com/galleries/se...2&searchtype=1
That query actually wouldn't quite work for you as it's an exact match query, but you probably get the idea. Photoplog handles custom fields (and with the new version) searching on custom fields better than any other vB gallery package out there. IIRC Photoplost and vBGallery both *don't* search on custom fields? I now there were serious shortcomings with their custom fields searching, and Plog could work around them. ::shrug::
Not sure if that's an answer but hope it helps a little?
James and Susan