For anyone interested in learning how many people globally use search engines, Nielson/NetRatings recently released some interesting search statistics, and here is a snippet:

• 256m people globally, visited a search engine in December 2006 ? representing 81% of global internet users. 
• The global search audience has grown by 10% over the last year, while the total Internet audience grew 8%.
• Search engine use grew by 27% in France last year, by 21% in Spain, while US use grew by 8%. .
• Search is most popular in the UK, with 85% reach, ahead of France and Spain on 83%. For the US, the figure is 77%.
• The average searcher views 93 search pages a month, spending an average of 27 minutes.