[eluser]jdfwarrior[/eluser]
I guess I'm not real sure what your asking. The method I'm saying I would use would:
On click of the search button, submit values to a given controller and function via jquery's Ajax $.post function. The controller function called would check a session variable of the last time a search was performed. If time had expired, it would pass the values on to a model, executing the search, updating the last time of search, and returning results back to the $.post function to update the Dom accordingly. If upon checking, X amount of time had not elapsed since the last search this info would be passed back to $.post and an error message would be displayed to the user.
As far as get variables, just personal pref, I don't use them very much.