Yes, we had several people at my office say the same thing so another programmer and I wrote a couple of plugins to hide it (FX and Chrome only): http://www.seotools.com/hide-google-options/.

I personally like the sidebar, I think the date-based filtering is great.

The tool does not do the trick for me... Chrome 5.0.375.29 beta on Windows Vista.

Screen shot here, the Extension seems to be enabled.

http://asmo.kortis.to/misc/shot_07052010_125200.png

I guess it's time to start using duckduckgo.com for real.

Right now, it's only enabled for google.com -- we'll be adding all the google search properties in today.

Got it, thanks! I hadn't even noticed being redirected to the local page..

You could install the proprietary add-on that landyman linked, or you could install this one, assuming you don't already have it: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3682

Then just go to www.google.com/custom and make that your default firefox search.

I found this solution more elegant, as I already used the add-on.