Hm, I haven't looked into that because I prefer to keep the old link as well. I'll take a peek at it tomorrow and see what I can come up with, if someone else doesn't get it first.
Edit:
Actually, though probably not the cleanest way to do it, just comment out the existing search text.
Code:
<!-- $vbphrase[search] -->
It'll remove the text, and there will just be a blank, zero sized table cell in it's place.