This may be a silly question, but I keep running in circles. Using either bitcoind or JSON-RPC is there a way to search all transactions involving a address hash? I understand every wallet and most block explorer websites have this feature, but is it a native one I'm overlooking, or does everybody keep a separately indexed database off the blockchain?

I assume from the research I've done its #2, but given the size, history and Speed at which the blockchain updates building this database seems like it would take longer then actually downloading the blockchain.

Can someone please stear me in the correct direction so I'm not wasting the next 6 years rebuilding the wheel?

Thanks in advance for the assistance.