How to disable Spotlight in Snow Leopard?

"Open up terminal app and type in:

mdutil -a -i off

mdutil -- manages the metadata stores used by Spotlight

-a applies for all volumes

-i turns indexing on or off

For more help type in terminal:

man mdutil

EDIT:

If you prefer not to use the Terminal, you can use this paid software Spotless."

Here’s an old thread on SuperUser which covers removing the Spotlight completely from the menubar. Since your question isn’t clear on that point if you really want to deactivate it or if you just want to make it disappear -simply have a look here - maybe you like this solution.