Note to self: Just had a thought to store the history as JSON data structures in Javascript files. Appending messages to the log would be cleaner than XML or HTML since there is no document to close. External applications can easily read JSON. This allows integration with things like Google Desktop. Future Pandion versions can extend the data structure without breaking compatibility.

I also already implemented this feature for another branch of Pandion. Would be happy to compare both implementations! What other mods did you make? Please add me on Jabber to discuss, same address as my email.

Search box makes sense to me. It would be visible at all times so that users can easily discover this feature. However people should not be required to manually give it focus. Simply typing should filter the contacts automatically.