Half’s SEO Notebook

Philip Lensen reported a few days ago that “Google Video now* allows you to upload adult videos.” (with the added disclaimer that he’s not sure if the feature is new.) As Jimmy Ruska points out, the “Adult/Mature” option is not new; in fact it’s probably been there from the get-go. UI may have changed, but Google’s position hasn’t. Pornographic videos is still off limits, as you can see from this screen capture:

Verify what you read on the Interweb.

So, anyway, what does Adult/Mature category cover? A guy on Techcrunch linked to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8578885628445845834&q=blowjob (obviously edited in Windows Movie Maker) as a porn site advertising on Google Video, but that clip shows no nudity. It just links to a spammy landing page with Yahoo ads plastered all over it. Merely sexual behavior and nudity alone isn’t enough to label a video as pornographic (think of nude / sex scenes in mainstream movies, i.e. love making scene with Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain - not porn). Now http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7105575458677746453 is used to be porn on Google Video (NSFW), clearly in violation of Google Video TOS, which still says “c) the Authorized Content is not, in whole or in part, pornographic or obscene“. I’m a little disappointed Google re-encoded my video, since the original is in mouth-watering HiDef. Let’s see how long that stays up, shall we?

Update (8/15):

I received an email from video.google letting me know the video I submitted one day earlier was rejected. I did tag the hell out of it to make it easier to spot, but this is a good confirmation as any. The email reads:

Hi,

Your video “Sapphic Chicks High Def Promo” was rejected because it
didn’t comply with our policies.

Videos submitted to our program are subject to an initial review to
ensure that they comply with our guidelines. When videos do not meet
our standards, we disapprove them. The following explains our content
policies for uploading videos:

* You must have all necessary legal rights to the content.
* The video must not contain pornographic, nude, or obscene material.
* The subject matter in the video must not be illegal.
* The video cannot contain invasions of personal privacy.
* The video cannot contain promotions of hate or incitement of violence.
* The video cannot contain graphic violence or other acts resulting in
serious injury or death.

For more information regarding Google Video policies, please visit:
http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=27737&topic=1490

Follow UP (Aug 19):

How did they spot my video? Did a Googler actually spend time watching it, as the words in the email “subject to an initial review” imply? Or did Google decide on the content by just using the video title, description, tags? I posted a second clip to test this. I’ll see how long this one stays up.

Aug 22:

Google took 3 days to reject my last video I uploaded. Since I completely misrepresented the content of my video, I’m pretty convinced Google is manually reviewing videos submitted to them.

I do think Google Video is a step backwards for adult webmasters even if pornography was allowed, because the video quality is still on the low end.