A short note about feature that has been added (or fixed) in the last update of iTunes (7.1).
iTunes 7 added a hidden option when you clicked the Albums column : you could toggle between just "Albums" and "Albums by year". Albums by year sorts your library by artist, but your albums by year (and not by alphabetical order) -- which is really nice. Alas, when you typed a few letters to jump to an artist, it would instead search albums. For instance, if you typed M - I, hoping to jump to Miles Davis, you ended up with Missa Criolla.
But not anymore. With the latest update, when you type, iTunes now looks for artists even if the Library is sorted by "Album by year."
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070310093000703