Don't know if this is intended or not, but after /searching a location, the text turns to "Looted", but if you leave the area for a few seconds and go back. It turns back to /search. I have not yet found any new items after the second /search.
The search areas are re-enabled quickly at the moment (roughly 15 seconds) which is for testing reasons to help speed up progression as if playing longer hours.
The rate at which items are findable might be a bit low and need tweaking. I don't have enough user feedback data to understand whether the rate at which items can be found needs to be increased or not.
I have pinned this thread so a discussion can be had on the success rates of searching.