• The filter_anyMatch has been removed (added v2.13.3; removed in v2.15)
• A new option filter_external has been added. It is set to a jQuery selector string ('.search') or jQuery object ($('.search')) targetting an external input.
• So now a table can include both a filter row (filter_columnFilters is true, i.e. the internal table filters) and any number of external search inputs (as set by the filter_external option).
• The external search results must have a data-column="#" attribute set, where # is the index of the column (zero-based) that the input targets, to have an input search all table content, set the data column attribute to "all" to match any column.
• The $.tablesorter.bindSearch function (see demo) does exactly the same thing as the filter_external option. The major difference is seen when using ajax to populate the table, the initial filter values can be set before tablesorter initialization when using teh filter_external option; whereas, the bind search function can not set initial filter values and is usually executed after tablesorter initialization.

• Search operators - A search for values equal, greater or less than values (> >= <= <) is not allowed because tables that contain both numbers and text (in separate columns). For example:

  "Fred" > "1"  // true*
  "Fred" < "10" // false
  "Fred" > 1    // false (numeric comparisons occur with parsed table data)
  "Fred" > 1    // false
  "Fred" < 10   // false

  * For comparisons, letters have a greater ASCII value than numbers.
• Range query - A search for any number range (1 - 10) is not allowed because, if any columns contain text, then no rows will result. The examples are the same as the search operators examples above.
• Not Match query - A search for not matches (!a) is not allowed because tables that contain both numbers and text (in separate columns) will always show all rows. For example:

  "Frank".search("a")    //  2 (a match, so this row "may" be hidden)
  "Fred".search("a")      // -1 (a not match! so this row will always show)
  "25".search("a")        // -1 (a not match! so this row will always show)
  "1/1/2014".search("a")  // -1 (a not match! so this row will always show)

• Allowed filters include plain text matching, fuzzy search (~), exact match ("), wild card matches( ? or *), regex (/\d/g), and logical and (a && b)/or (a|b) matches.

// apply "2?%" filter to the fifth column (zero-based index)
var columns = [];
columns[5] = '2?%';
// anyMatch will kick in on undefined column filters,
// unless the array looks like this: columns = [ '', '', '', '', '', '2?%' ]
$('table').trigger('search', [ columns ]);