In many films they depict a search sequence with a large number of searchers lined up next to one another screaming the missing person’s name. When people are searching this way, lined up next to one another, in real life they are not looking for a living person. Instead, they are looking for a deceased person or clues.
In real life, searchers follow try to contain a search area and then do a hasty search in the areas that make the most sense. They then work backward, continuing to search less and less likely areas, while following a series of protocols.
The very last thing that they do, the thing they do when it is highly likely that the person is not in a place to respond verbally, is to do a tight search like they show on TV.
–Jason D. Martin