In addition, among the 83 million shoppers whose behavior was studied during the holiday season, the 8.6 million who subsequently bought online were much more likely to search across all product categories. Those consumers performed almost 10 times the number of searches conducted by nonbuyers, according to the study. The study also indicates that 60 percent of all searchers started their search process before Nov. 15, 2005.

"This is likely due to the aggressive pricing and marketing programs that were implemented in 2005 by many retailers prior to Thanksgiving, which apparently caused consumers to begin their shopping process earlier than normal," according to comScore. "For search advertisers, these statistics imply that holiday-season advertising budgets should be sufficiently large and applied early enough to cover for the aggressive search behavior of buyers."

ComScore also found that online searches helped consumers make their decisions about which gifts to purchase.

According to the study, more than 80 percent of consumers viewed search as helpful for purchasing gifts, seven in 10 claimed it was influential in helping to find gifts and more than three out of five said they would likely use search the next time they go to purchase a gift.