Your right, a search box did appear.
And Cortana still works the same.
Have you messed around with Cortana?
I've gotten her to play my music when I ask but I've failed so far at setting up multiple playlists so that I can say "Hey Cortana play my Classical Music", or "Hey Cortana play my Pop Music" etc.
I set up a folder with 10 hours of music in it, and she will play those in random order so that works great.
I use it a lot since I can just turn the music on and off without interrupting what I'm doing.
It's too new for there to be any real information on the net about how to do things with her.
The funniest joke that she told me was...
Two snowmen were standing in a field, one says to the other..
"Funny I smell carrots too".
Mike