Windows 7: Search engine use explodes in December.

People were doing a whole lot more online searching last month, and they were still largely using the Google engine to do it.

A comScore, Inc. study released late last week showed that 46% more online searches were made worldwide last month than in December, 2008. In all, the Web tracking firm said, people 15 and older conducted 131 billion searches just in December, or an average of 4 billion searches a day, 175 million per hour, and 29 million per minute.

"The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president, in a statement. "Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behavior among Internet users that drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks."