title: Best way to search for R packages?
body: <h3>Related question</h3>
  <blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/102056/how-to-search-for-r-materials">how to search for r materials</a></p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Part of the reason why the R community has been attracted to a tag based service like StackOverflow, I think, is that information on R is fundamentally difficult to find online.  Services like <a href="http://www.rseek.org/" rel="noreferrer">RSeek</a> have made this slightly less painful, however, I often find the search results scattered.</p>
  <p>Specifically, I am often curious if R packages exist to meet a specific need I am facing.  RSeek is useful for finding package documentation, but not for discovering new packages---and the R package manager is even less useful.  As such, what are some best practices for searching for packages?  That is, when I realize I have a need that my current set of R packages will not meet, and before creating the functionality myself I would like to search for a package that will meet the need.  What is the best way to proceed?</p>