Please set the radio button in "Scope" to "Selected Text" instead of "Global", when there is a text block selected.

then we'll get a lot of requests to keep it Global, like it was when we had the behaviour like you suggested.

@Kito. I for one prefer the scope to default to global at all times. This is simply because 1) I search globally most of the time, and 2) I often select the text I want to search for before pressing CTRL+F (i.e the Find Text at Cursor option in Tools / Settings / Editor Settings).

Why not just save the state across invocations? For those users who never change it, this effectively lets them lock in whatever setting they prefer, and for everyone else (like me) who work one way 90% of the time, it also makes our lives easier.