Would it help if, like the previous "Try this search on code, we primed the !bang autocomplete with site searches well represented in the results?
Would be nice if, as you say, you could type in, for instance, 'lung scaffold biomedical !', and have a drop-down bang search appear, populated with the relevant scientific search engines, and then also include graphical logos, and descriptions. It would make the !bang options much more discoverable.
--the !bangs are already categorized and it sounds like you're looking for a way to see which !bangs might apply to your search (for better results). ~explore mode. Would the suggestion of making them searchable by category be a good solution or something even different?
> Would the suggestion of making them searchable by category be a good solution or something even different?
On the /bang.html page I think it would be good if you could search through the !bangs using a small text description, or a series of tags, because a single category doesn't really cover it. For instance, scirus or google scholar are science search engines, you can't just put them in the 'academic' or 'learning' section, and expect people to be able to find them, unless they already know the sites.