Daniel-
Giving people the option of live database search and Googlesearch should reduce database server load as well (I always felt guilty using the Wikipedia search before
A properly implemented search should not make anyone feel guilty. If the search doesn't scale, we can't re-enable it, big ass server or not. In the current implementation, the search causes massive locking problems with high concurrent access, probably due to some unresolved deadlock. But the search index itself is fast - in the range of milliseconds. So once we resolve the locking issue, the additional load caused by the search should be negligible.
As for Google, I'm all for it if it doesn't overload the user interface. It would be nice to have an "Advanced Search" link anyway so that you don't have to run a normal search to get to the advanced search form. That advanced form could include the Google search box. But Google is not and cannot be a replacement for realtime searching.
Regards,
Erik