Well, you could always set the IE7 search box to search Google and uninstall
the Google bar, which is rendered pretty much useless by feature additions.

While I'm at it...  How the heck can I move the "command bar" to
somewhere besides the tabbed browsing line!

-T

I have tested the below and it works fine but for all you registry novices
here is a Disclaimer:
BEFORE DOING BELOW YOU SHOULD SEARCH THE WEB AND LEARN HOW TO MAKE A BACKUP
OF YOUR REGISTRY AND HOW TO USE THIS NEWLY MADE BACKUP TO RESTORE YOUR
REGISTRY.

To remove the Instant Search Box from IE7 cut and paste below into new blank
NotePad file then save as file name: "nosearchbox.reg" to your desktop (NOTE:
you must manually type in the extension ".reg"):

Copy and Paste everything below/after here:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\
Infodelivery\Restrictions]
"NoSearchBox"=dword:00000001
Copy and Paste everything above/before here.

Find the newly created reg file on your desktop and double-click it, confirm
OK when second window pops up.

Restart IE7 and you will notice Instant Search Box is gone.

To restore Instant Search Box create another similar file as you did above
called "restoresearchbox.reg" with the contents below:

Copy and Paste everything below/after here:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\
Infodelivery\Restrictions]
"NoSearchBox"=dword:00000000
Copy and Paste everything above/before here.