The left and right front panel buttons will scroll through the search list. So in theory, if you could make a search come up on the front panel (would have to be able to press the search button more than once), you could select a title or an artist or whatever just by pressing the left and right front panel buttons enough times.

But that's really less efficient than just having well-organized playlists and scrolling through those. At least with the playlists, you can use the knob to speed-scroll if you want. Without the alphanumeric features of the remote control, scrolling through the search screen would require hundreds of button presses instead of just a few. Heck, I can find most tunes much faster by scrolling through my playlists than I can with the search function even when I have the remote.

That's why this FAQ entry says "Alphanumeric searches (by artist, by title, etc.) Front Panel: No Remote: Yes."