My first xp party I responded to a guy /shout'ing in Ul'Dah - which is sort of this games version of Jeuno/Whitegate at the moment.

I have yet to really understand the search menu and I am lucky because I play with 2 RL friends. I would say the best bet is to hang around in Ul'Dah once you get to R20ish (the storyline missions will take you there anyway) and wait for /shout, /shout yourself or find a linkshell that suits you. We need a decent search system in this game methinks.

I am only R21, so if someone more experienced can suggest something else I would also be interested.