Okay, couple things:
1) The "Searching by characteristics" search (the one we're talking about here) displays results alphabetically. It does so because it's technically not a search, it's a browse. I know it feels like a search but it's not.
2) I have updated the code tonight. The previous limit was 100 and the new limit is 1,000. So I think that should probably handle all cases from here out.
