Turns out it works. It looked blank because I'd emptied the history and cookies. I thought it was (grayed out) and didn't even check to see if google would respond-which it did once I tried. Thanks for your help
You were exactly right! I thought safari was grayed out (not working). but I entered a search word in google and it worked. I feel a little stupid but am very happy to have found out the cause was only emptying my history and cookies?