When I was trying to resolve this question: How to display the user picture on the search page? I found that in the THEME_preprocess_search_result function I can't access to the user information (I use the user search functionality) the only information about the searched users that I can use is the follow:
function THEME_preprocess_search_result(&$variables) {
dpm($variables);
}
I can use the username and the email, I can extract from $variables['result']['title'] the username, but I think that the best way is access directly to the uid of the searched user. The problem is that I don't know how access to this information.
So, there is another way to obtain the uid of a searched user?
EDIT: I need the info of the system users (drupal users). User is not a content type.