Installing Google Now on Verizon Galaxy S3 (SCH-I535) I'd like to get Google Now on my (rooted) Verizon Galaxy S3 without flashing Jelly Bean on my phone.  Is this possible?

Although I'd love to have Jelly Bean, I want to avoid flashing ROMs (and unlocking my bootloader), because I don't want to lose all of my apps and settings every time I do an upgrade.  So I'd like to continue to receive stock OTA updates so that I can keep my settings intact while upgrading.

I did find this method, but I'm not sure I understand the implications.  It mentions flashing a Google Now ROM to your phone.  Does that mean I would lose my current settings?  Does it mean I would have trouble later doing an OTA upgrade to Jelly Bean?  Would I need to unlock my bootloader?
If you follow the method found in the LifeHacker article, you would indeed need to root your phone, which would mean that you wouldn't be able to receive OTA updates, unless you were to later un-root your phone, going back to the stock firmware (ROM).

You wouldn't necessarily lose your current settings, but you would have trouble upgrading to Jelly Bean via an OTA upgrade unless you un-rooted, as mentioned above.

I'm sure you would have to unlock your bootloader as well, prior to rooting, although I'm not really familiar with your particular model of phone.