I've been debating whether or not to join in this conversation but anyway...
Some time ago, when I was looking at getting my first dog I spent a lot of time searching Pet Rescue. I was in Canberra and did see the "ALL CAPS" parts of some adds from a rescue group and I have to say I was completely turned off - not because it was 'shouting' as such but it made me feel as if I would not be considered worthy of adopting a dog by that particular group. It was quite intimidating. I ended up with a purebred Staffy as my first dog. Just some feedback from a then first-time pet searcher.
As for search options for Pet Rescue, it would be great to be able to refine the search further, though I wholeheartedly agree with NOT being able to search by breed. By not being able to search by breed it means every dog has a chance of being seen, and if you REALLY want that particular breed, you should be able to dedicate the time to searching through the listings. I think this is where further refinements would help too. I think categories like age brackets for children, needing to be an only dog, needing to be with another dog, being cat friendly, level of daily exercise needed, level of daily/weekly grooming, age brackets of dogs (say puppy, 1 - 3, 4 - 8 etc, though this would maybe work out worse for older dogs), amount of daily human interaction (eg fine to be left while at work all day or if needs someone home more than that). Or maybe if there is a fence height requirement, so if I only had 1.2m fence say, I could enter that and dogs like my Riley who can climb over the seven foot fence I have would be excluded :laugh: