How rank a video in universal search when YouTube is not an option?

[peterdaly]

What is the current state of the algorithms for ranking video in universal search, if YouTube is not an option?

Why is YouTube not an option?
1. It will be over 10 minutes long.
2. Not being able to control the "similar videos" that come up at the end of play is a problem, this will be embedded in a corporate site.
3. Ads (for competitors) showing up would be a problem (see #2).

The best option would be to host the flv on our own site, and send google a video sitemap feed, but that seems to bring up more questions than answers. Such as:

1. Can a self host video show up in Universal Search (I can't find any examples of yes.)
2. What does it take for a self hosted video to trip the switch to trigger universal search. Play counts, ratings, comments, etc are not available.

Vimeo with a pay account seems like a potential solution since it allows more than 10 minutes and control over the player, but I can't find any examples of vimeo videos showing up in universal search.

What are the best options as of now, April 2009? Lots of previous thread about this topic on WW are older and seem to not answer the key questions that come up when YouTube isn't used.

[BradleyT]

#2 and #3 are non-issues. You can embed a video using the YT player and not show related videos. None of our videos show ads, I think you have to be a youtube partner to opt in to that.

[tedster]

By not using YouTube you do have a tougher road getting into universal search - partly because Google cannot easily see various metrics for the video, such as how many comments, how many embeds, how many impressions/plays and so on.

It can be done - I've seen examples and we've had some reports in this forum about it. But I think at the moment it takes, at a minimum, some serious backlinks.