I'm unsure if this is new over 1.0. I can only say I started noticing it in 1.1 when I started opening the wrong applications assuming they would be at the top of the list as they have in the past.
In both Start11 version 1.1 and 1.11, when searching using the old Start10 style search does not rank results by their usage or hit count. It seems to force the results to be displayed in alphabetical order no matter what. This does not appear to be a problem with the normal "Start11 search", only when the "Use old Start10 style search" option is enabled.
I agree. I'm also getting these seemingly random search results. It drives me nuts that I have to type in "notep" before I'll see any reference to notepad. In Windows 7 or 8 search, I only need to type in "no". If Start8 is supposed to be using the Windows Search index, why do we get these inconsistent results on the start menu?