comScore reports that global search grew by 46% in 2009. There are several interesting things about this data, but one that I found very interesting is the China-U.S. duality. China, with billions more in population is way behind the U.S. in number of searches AND grew by 9% less year over year from December 2008 to December 2009. I’d be curious to know how China fares one year from now.

Still, 46% growth in one year? That’s pretty significant growth. In the U.S., that growth is 22%. Still not bad.

I’d like to see these figures on a local or state level within the U.S. I think it would be interesting to see whether people in urban areas or rural areas are searching more. Just a guess, urban populations search more but rural areas areas are growing faster. Just a guess.

Of course, data like this means nothing in a vacuum. What this is really saying is that search engine revenue is going up, but it also is saying there is a lot of potential here for businesses to reach their markets, both through organic search and paid search. Are you fretting a bad economy? Don’t be. People are searching and their spending money online. The question is, what are you doing about it?