"Thrifty" search

Would it be possible to simply show a search form with the search terms pre-populated, but NOT perform the search until the user submits the form? This would save many resources for large sites, or recently-migrated sites.

Thrifty404 does this, but it does not have as many options as Search 404, nor does it parse the URL as well.

It seems like a simple addition to Search 404. I envision a checkbox on the settings page, worded something like this "Automatically perform search", checked by default, with a description of "Unchecking this will simply pre-populate the search field (which saves resources)."

What do you think? I will happily submit a patch for it.