I talked with a few people on #perl, and it seems that the problem is really with search.cpan.org, not cpan itself. The cpan shell and such are still behaving well, so I guess I got all bent out of shape over nuttin.
problems with search - email feedback@search.cppan.org. problems with CPAN authors/mods/dist write modules@perl.org. I didn't see the problem on search else I may have been able to do a quick fix so try to be as specific as you can in your email.
