Take a look at this very old blog article I wrote. Whilst this is dealing with Display, the same is possible with search. You would need to write a class that replaced / with , when someone performs a search etc.
http://www.iminstant.com/iminstant/iminstant.nsf/d6plinks/CTYR-65ALL2
Another article
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSKTXQ_8.5.0/com.ibm.help.sametime.v85.doc/config/config_chat_ldap_java_addtoldap.html