Politely explaining how a person might use the search to help them find information is a good idea. Thats not sluffing them off but in addition to any help you offer them, you have given them a second alternative by explaining how they might find oodles of info from a simple search.
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day...
Teach a man to fish and he will be an unemployed beer drinker within a month...wait, thats not how its supposed to go is it?
You get the idea though.