Is the question about whether the Tamias results have changed or whether the search algorithm has changed? The Tamias results have probably changed due to changing observation counts, but the crux of the problem remains: I would like to see exact matches before partial matches before fuzzy matches. Even better would be to allow exact match searching too.
Another example, with screenshot for posterity:
The search is for genetta. The second taxon is matching on the French common name genêt à balai, the fourth is matching on the German common name Genetzte Ackerschnecke. Neither one is an exact match, but they’re ranked ahead of Genetta genetta, and I can’t even see from the results page what they matched on.
Related suggestion for ordering results when filling in a taxon for an ID: