The only way to do it, without using one of the two options in that thread, would be to make a change to the code to add a new header option, say %search and changing the code to deal with it.
It would probably take a couple hours to code, test, document and package for a new release. Maybe I should start a kickstart to fund it
UPDATE: You might want to just add a new widget area to the 'Configure Header Area' and put a search widget there and position it with CSS