I was wondering if anyone knew for sure if encouraging people to use the google searchbar was against TOS. Not encouraging them to click an ad, just searching.
I doubt that's against the TOS. Why would it be. It's not even against the TOS to tell people to download Firefox. The reason why telling people to click ads is against the TOS is because that will make people click, even if they are not interested - which leads to a lower ROI for the advertiser. But telling people to search, or download something, is the equivalent of telling people to buy something: no business would tell you not to do that.