[conistonwater]

Speaking of incremental search: try ace-jump-mode, it's really good. Here is a video that shows it at work: http://emacsrocks.com/e10.html

[michaelcampbell]

How long did it take you to get used to that? Replacing the searched-for letter with (essentially) a marker seems a bit mind-altering.

[klibertp]

Also iy-goto-char