Another way would be to keep this bookmarklet handy (select the entire line and drag it to your Bookmarks toolbar in Mozilla/Firefox; IE users click here):
javascript:document.forms[0].lastnode_id.value=124;return false;
Now that it's there, simply click it whenever you want to search without linking. It's similar to clicking the logo first, like Torque suggested, but it saves you the wait.
Update: If you use Firefox and have Greasemonkey, you'll probably find this user script I wrote more convenient - it adds a "Don't link" checkbox to the search form on every E2 page.