I like to be able to find the next occurence of a string without exiting the command line. Here is a hack to do that:

set incsearch
cnoremap <expr> / (getcmdtype() == '/' || getcmdtype() == '?' ? (getcmdline() == '' ? "<Up>" : "<Cr>/<Up>") : "/")
cnoremap <expr> ? (getcmdtype() == '/' || getcmdtype() == '?' ? (getcmdline() == '' ? "<Up>" : "<Cr>?<Up>") : "?")