I have created a profile that includes a custom property called "Vendor", where we select a vendor name from a dropdown list. When I conduct a search for a vendor name that I know is there, SharePoint doesn't find it. But if I use advanced search with the property options, it does find it. I thought SharePoint indexes all profile properties for searching without resorting to the extra steps of using advanced search.

I also tried this using the "system" property of "Company". Again, I have the same problem described above.

FYI: search finds words in "Title", "Description", "Keywords" and body text -- but not the properties described above, where I have to resort to advanced search using the property search options. Any ideas why that is?

PS: I've tried a full index update and search still can't find "Vendor" or "Company".