Search Box inside a panel

Hi,
I am continuing to build my site on Localhost. I have created a panel in which I want to place a search box. The panel displays correctly and everything looks fine HOWEVER when I try a search it dos not carry it out. Nothing appears and there is no error message. this is my code:

<div class="panel panel-default">
<div class="panel-body">
<div class="col-md-4 "><?php echo $search; ?>
</div>

I am at the very beginning of understanding code etc. so bear with me. What variables and pages affect the search and why would the code not work? Any advice welcomed.
Thanks

Does clicking submit take you to the search page with no result, or does nothing happen at all?

Look at /catalog/view/javascript/common.js, on line 57 & 68 it defines the path the search is called from; if you have altered this it could be the problem.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for response. The issue was in $search was not executing correctly. Now sorted.