Courant News currently builds upon Haystack search library, which allows for use of various search backend options depending on your hosting situation and needs.
For example, if you are on shared hosting that does not allow the installation of Java or custom C++ programs, you can use the Whoosh engine, which is python-only. However, if you can use Java, it is recommended that you use the Solr backend, which is far faster and can handle larger datasets. Read the Haystack documentation for more information on choosing a backend.
Courant News makes some assumptions about what information to display on the search results page, but if you desire different behavior, simply define your own search views, forms, and URLs and include them in your site URLconf.