Google Docs added an option to perform advanced searches. You can now restrict your search to the file's name or its content, select the sharing type, search only inside a folder or only for files modified in the past week. The interface is not very intuitive and it's very similar to Gmail's advanced search. Fortunately, you can save the search and create a new view that's accessible from the sidebar or from the small drop-down placed next to the search box.
The saved searches are actually custom views that could help you find documents faster. Create custom views for published documents, documents that are shared with you, starred spreadsheets or for documents last opened in the past 7 days.
Custom views could be a great addition to Gmail, while Google Docs lacks the powerful operators from Gmail. The list view from Google Docs looks more and more like a file explorer and should be used for any kind of files, not just for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.