Question: I would like to change the image next to the search box to a styled input button.

Do I need to create a new delegate control to do this? Can I do this with css, if so how?

This is the standard search UI  

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bRp3m.jpg)

This is the desired css button look  

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/t59MW.jpg)

Answer: 
You can either replace the `DelegateControl` (if you have farm access)

<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms463169.aspx>

```
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
    <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="SmallSearchInputBox" Version="4"/>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

```

Or you can override the `PlaceHolderSearchArea` in your page layouts (if you can only have site access)
Just throwing this into the discussion...
Erik Swenson did 2 great blog posts regarding how to change the way the OOTB search box looks like:
<http://erikswenson.blogspot.com/2011/02/sharepoint-2010-large-search-box-scopes.html>
and
<http://erikswenson.blogspot.com/2011/02/sharepoint-2010-large-search-box.html>
Seems to me that reusing the default control and changing the default image/ icon via css would be the easiest solution?
Greg