The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 43.5 billion videos in December, according to comScore. The data firm released video viewing numbers Tuesday morning estimating that 182 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in December, for an average of 23.2 hours per viewer. While YouTube generated the most views, what can marketers do to build their brand as the video site prepares to launch the 96 channels announced late last year?

Vertical Search Works (VSW) officially launched Friday its semantic search and advertising platform VS4Food, a search widget for publishers. Search on a food-related query and the search engine returns results from both the publisher's and other related Web sites. The platform organizes results into categories and serves up images along with the text, as well as image and text ads.

YouTube is betting big on original content. By 2020, 75% of all media channels will be born and transmitted via the Internet, predicted Robert Kyncl, the vice president of content at YouTube, during his Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote Thursday. Online video doesn't mean computers. The content is viewed on tablets and smartphones. And these videos are viewed from platforms other than YouTube. For anyone giving it a second thought, Google TV now makes sense.

Independent thinkers who are not easily influenced will listen to what others have to say and weigh their options. So when Google announced this week the integration of Google+ social posts into google.com query results I began wondering what happened to the promise of clean search results without a bunch of garbage. And folks, really -- did you not see this coming? Obviously, there's more to the strategy.

No -- search and social engines are not ready to play nice. Marketers will just have to own up to the fact that one search engine will not become everything to everyone. Each will do what it can to improve the chance that people use their services. For now, Google holds the majority of explicit organic search and paid-search market share, but Microsoft could continue to creep up and eventually change the dynamics with the introduction of Windows 8 and the Metro interface used in Windows Phone, and the Xbox 360 entertainment console.

High mobile adoption rates among consumers and advertisers point to an increase in data from in-app call tracking for phone numbers in ads. Insight released Monday by Telmetrics, which provides advertising call measurement tools, suggests that local search trends will continue in 2012.

Search and social have always been interrelated, but now more so than ever. Since I'm interested in what social subjects are top of mind for search marketers, I took a few questions to the experts who were gracious enough to share their thoughts with SearchBlog readers. Thanks to Trada CEO Niel Robertson, Rimm-Kaufman Group CEO George Michie, 140proof CEO Jon Elvekrog, and Covario CEO Russ Mann for sharing their thoughts.

Tablets will increasingly drive mobile search and eCommerce trends. Mobile payments will be tied more closely with coupons. And voice search competition will continue to heat up. These are the top three trends that J.P. Morgan analysts say will drive search marketing in 2012.

Would Wal-Mart build a mobile network to make online searches and orders on mobile devices easier? Whatever the motive, the Bentonville, Ark. company continues to buy up smaller technology firms to support its online business. The latest acquisition -- Small Society, described as a mobile agency -- is the latest to join the @WalmartLabs mobile team.

Search marketers have a lot to think about these days. Optimize campaigns, integrate social signals, and try to figure out the perfect time to begin allocating budgets to mobile search campaigns. And what about tapping search data to target and retarget ads?