Alliance search is an horrible functionality that never brings active alliance.
When I saw that, my first thought was I this an active game or in decline?
This could be a great improvement for new players. I guess it would be interesting to share information with other players, specially when you are starting in the game and you don't speak English. Alliance could be a great place to receive advice from other players.
In other games I saw filter based on country, language activity, user level / power
That could be a good starting point.