Last week, we announced that we're turning down uploads to Google Video, and refocusing our attention on building a more comprehensive video search engine (in case you're wondering, Google Video search algorithms power YouTube as well as "universal search" from Google.com). We want to make it possible for people searching Google.com or Google Video to find any video, at any time, from any site. But indexing video presents some unique challenges, and if you have videos on your site, you're probably wondering how to make sure your videos are discoverable through Google.

We want video publishers to know that we've made it easier to submit your videos to Google. First, we've simplified the process that allows you to submit Sitemaps to Google. Second, we also extended our Video Sitemaps support to include Media RSS feeds. You do not have to specify the Sitemap file type—we'll determine the type of data you're submitting automatically.

The more information you make available, the easier it is for us to crawl your videos. Here are a few simple things you can include in your Sitemaps to make your videos easier to find:

1) Landing page URL: This is the page where the video is hosted. It's better to have a unique landing page for each video on your site.

2) Video thumbnail URL: Thumbnails provide a strong visual cue to the user. Your video thumbnail should be representative of a snapshot from the video, and should not be misleading in any way.

3) Title & Description: If these are accurate and descriptive, they not only help Google understand your video, but also help users choose the best video search result. Providing information about category, keyword tags and duration is always helpful.

Whether or not you have Video Sitemaps or MRSS feeds, of course, it's important that you make sure that Google can crawl and index your video sites correctly. Make sure you understand how Google crawls, indexes and serves the web. Review the Webmaster Guidelines that will help Google find, index and rank your site. We've also updated the Google Video Help Center to include more information for video publishers. While there's no guarantee that our spiders will find a particular site, following these guidelines should increase the chances of finding videos from your site in the search results.

We hope your videos find the audience they deserve. Take a look at our help content for Video Publishers and Webmasters to get started.

Posted by Amit Paunikar, Product Manager on Google Blog

A two days ago, Google finally announced that they are shutting down the ability for users to upload videos to Google Video “in a few months”. I say finally because many of us expected this to happen for some time and given the efforts spent on enhancements to YouTube, it only makes sense that Google keeps Youtube as the source for uploading video.

“In a few months, we will discontinue support for uploads to Google Video. Don’t worry, we’re not removing any content hosted on Google Video — this just means you will no longer be able to upload new content to the service. We’ve always maintained that Google Video’s strength is in the search technology that makes it possible for people to search videos from across the web, regardless of where they may be hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.
We’re confident this decision is the right one for our users, and we’re looking forward to making Google Video an even better place for you to search and find videos from all over the web.” - Michael Cohen, Product Manager - Google Video

So, What does this mean for video seo?
Simple, Get your video sitemaps ready! If you don’t already know, aside from uploading, there are a few additional ways to get your videos into the Google Video search index.
First off, you can create and submit a video XML sitemap to Google via the Google Webmaster Center. This method is Google’s preferred method in terms of sitemap submissions. However, in addition to XML video sitemaps, you can also submit an MRSS feed via Google’s Webmaster Center. Finally, Google crawls the web and looks for video content on its own. If you are serving flash movie files (FLV, F4V, etc…) through a video hosting provider, it is more difficult for Google to discover these videos. Therefore, we recommend creating and submitting a XML video sitemap.

Overall, it is still important to get your video up on Google Video as it appears that this is one way in which you can get video thumbnails to appear within Google organic search. Furthermore, if it is your strategy to get your videos seen by the masses, it is important that you get your video as much exposure as possible. Google video is an important destination for those searching for videos. According to the latest Comscore metrics, Google properties (which include YouTube) have the largest share by far (40% share compared to the next highest - Fox, with 4% share) when it comes to both video views and unique viewers.