Thanks for a good post, Jeanine, and thanks for the link to the ActiveRain blog post, Pat.  Below is the reply I posted on the 'site to John Bethell, the author of the post:

Thanks, John for your thoughts and your insight.  As the owner of a small regional title abstracting company, I can attest to what you're saying.  The outsourcing of title searches to overseas operations known as "thin" title plants in an effort to cut costs is also an issue that we abstractors have been dealing with for some time now, and the addition of your voice to this issue is very much appreciated.  What surprises me is just how many real estate agents and brokers are unaware of this practice.  Of course, if I were shipping the United States over to India one courthouse at a time the way "Big Title" is doing, I wouldn't be making a big public showing of it, either.

ActiveRain's own Lenn Harley summed it up best when she said:

"The title search is one of the most important transactions involved in buying a home.  It's isn't the place to begin an economy drive." 

Cutting corners to save money may seem an acceptable risk to the insurers, but in the end, it's the consumer who loses.