How long has this been going for? and if you want to search for someone, do you literaly put their name in and then trapse through the (sometimes hundreds) of photos of people of the same name, till you realise that somone you knew ten years ago either 1) isnt on facebook, 2) looks 10 years older and now you dont recognise them, or 3) they dont have a photo, so could be any 'Paul Smith' . Have I missed a link on there that helps you find people...
once you have reg with them choose the network in your area i.e manchester then when you enter the name you can choose that network in your area, but also you can do the advanced search with age,sex,area etc.