Hi Christopher,
1 - For the search options, you can get rid of them by adding the following parameters to the search tag:
ShowSite="false" ShowWeb="false"
2 - For styling of the search link, you should have a look at how the "Gravity" sample skin on DNN 7 has styled it. Here is a copy:
#search a.SearchButton:link, #search a.SearchButton:visited {
display: inline-block;
float: right;
height: 32px;
width: 32px;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background: #333 url('images/search.png') no-repeat center center;
text-indent: -9999px;
}
Look carefully that you will see it uses an image "images/search.png" to disply the search magnifier glass.
Best regards,
Aderson