Disable recent Chrome zoom control/panel

Question

MacOSX Snow Leopard, current version of Chrome

For the past few months, Chrome responds to a zoom request (Command +) by putting up a small "panel" or popup in the top right of its window.

That panel responds to a space bar press by zooming out.

So I get stuck with this:

1. Command + => Zoom in (good)
2. Spacebar press intended to scroll down the page => zooms out (bad)

Of course, I can wait until the panel disappears after a few seconds.

Is there a Chrome setting that will disable the panel or set it disappear much more quickly and automatically?