I need Some pros here to shed some light on this issue, I have another thread asking for help on this, but everyone is just scratching their head, Where are the gurus at? Does anyone know why my thumbnail isnt showing on google?

Originally Posted by Tier1

I need Some pros here to shed some light on this issue, I have another thread asking for help on this, but everyone is just scratching their head, Where are the gurus at? Does anyone know why my thumbnail isnt showing on google?

How fast is your internet connection where you are? When I go over my monthly cap (on my home machine) some thumbnails don't show at all for video searches and I have to refresh the page a couple times. On my VPS this never happens. Or your browser might have rendering issues or is sluggish? It might also depend on whether the still images from the video used for the thumbnails are provocative or need reviewing.

These are just some ideas and not proven theories (apart from the slow connection one perhaps) but hope that helps you somewhat .

I have the same problem, but it's in the adult niche so thought maybe that's why..

My internet connection is very fast, and the thumbnail is just a girl in bra and underwear....does googlle manually review these? whats going on?

I think i figured it out, then i realized why people arnt answering lol.

Originally Posted by Tier1

I think i figured it out, then i realized why people arnt answering lol.

eh? so your going to rub it in and not post anything on it? At least hint me out if its a video thing, or a google thing. I'm more interested in how this applies to other sites where i see the thumbnail on some results and not on others.

same happens to me...as well my channel is listed for the keywords and not the fucking videos individually

its a google thing, search youtube thumbnails in google help forums and you will go on a journey

OP asked for help, found it elsewhere and decided not to share.

This forum is about sharing.

1. The normal way of Picking a video thumbnail

After you upload your YouTube video, it's processed. After processing, you're given the option to select one of three available thumbnails.

The three thumbnail images are randomly selected by YouTube at around the 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 points in the video. (If you have a blank frame at these points in the video, then you it's likely you'll have a blank thumbnail).


2. Custom Thumbnail Images

If you have a 'normal' YouTube account and the YouTube video thumbnail was a custom image that was uploaded (some time ago), then this has been disallowed due to abuse; people were uploading thumbnail images that weren't even in the video (or was only for a few milliseconds), like a picture of a hot girl, just to get viewers to watch their videos.

Only YouTube Partners have the ability to upload their own custom thumbnail images.

Code:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=1bac5a1edbe8f1af&hl=en

But even partners have had problems with custom thumbnails:

Code:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=2c7737d7380bc941&hl=en

3. External Factors
There could also be issues with your internet connection latency, browser or operating system, so try to eliminate these.


4. Workaround: Custom Thumbnails for Non-Partners
a. Insert a 10 second custom image at the beginning, middle or end of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozyK6geEjNw

b. Insert a custom image at a specific point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgm290eUxAQ




Hope this helps.

If you are talking about Google results then I have an idea. I have seen a couple of video results before. The most related video to the search query is shown with thumbnail while those who are less-related are only shown as links under the thumb nailed video.

Ryuchi

SEo Wiz , That was a good try, but you havent hit the nail on the head. I have learnt alot at this forum. And will Share, But i must say i am apprehensive, because i know that people on this forum know the answer, ive seen some really smart people on this forum. I have posted this thread a few times with no real help. So i came to the conclusion that people are just withholding this information for their own gain. But i will be the bigger man I guess.

This is what i found : you have to tell the search engine where the thumbnail is by uploading a sitemap.xml with your videos information, also mRSS feeds supposedly are even better than a sitemap. Go to the google webmaster tools section and google help for more instructions on creating and submitting sitemaps and mRSS feeds

cheers

Originally Posted by Tier1

SEo Wiz , That was a good try, but you havent hit the nail on the head. I have learnt alot at this forum. And will Share, But i must say i am apprehensive, because i know that people on this forum know the answer, ive seen some really smart people on this forum. I have posted this thread a few times with no real help. So i came to the conclusion that people are just withholding this information for their own gain. But i will be the bigger man I guess.

Don't worry . . . 99% of the readers here won't understand it, use it, or read it cause this thread will be old and buried soon. . . You'll still stay ahead of the competition. . because they need to do a lot of other work besides this to make any money off this idea, and most are just too damn lazy

I have same problem when uploading mp4. What I do to fix this is open the source file with windows movie maker and save as wmv and reupload. everything fine after that. consider to try that.

Originally Posted by Tier1

SEo Wiz , That was a good try, but you havent hit the nail on the head. I have learnt alot at this forum. And will Share, But i must say i am apprehensive, because i know that people on this forum know the answer, ive seen some really smart people on this forum. I have posted this thread a few times with no real help. So i came to the conclusion that people are just withholding this information for their own gain.

Almost, but not quite.
The method you described has already been shared on BHW, you just didn't look hard enough.

What I described above does not require any connection with Google Webmaster Tools. If you're doing blackhat stuff or want to fly under the radar, then you don't want any connection with GWT.