The search entry callback for the focus-in-event signal has the wrong prototype. Because of that, this signal is not propagated correctly and the entry does not get "visually" focused here (the carret is not displayed and the entry is not highlighted, but typing displays the characters in the entry).
Created attachment 2614 Use the correct prototype for the callback.
Patch applied in master. I'll also apply this fix to the stable branch. commit 8372af95f8df8f5d173ec9383d6089a04acb2ca4 Author: Jannis Pohlmann <jannis@xfce.org> Date: Sun Oct 18 15:21:57 2009 +0200 Properly propagate the focus-in-event of the search entry (bug #5883). Reported, identified and patch provided by Jérôme Guelfucci.