Search for Images using Python (Spatial Extent)

I'm looking to replicate what ESRI has developed as part of their search functionality within ArcMap and ArcCatalog. I would like to be able to use the capabilities of the Search functionality within a Python script that will allow me to use the retrieved images within other python scripts as part of analysis or for managing our images. We currently house roughly 300 000 images from different sources and this is growing exponentially every year. I'm currently developing a python script for generating multiple mosaic datasets from the images that we house on our files server.

Any starting point would be appreciated.

Regards