I want to create a Google-friendly Video Sitemap (details here) for pages on my website that feature cartoon animations. The problem is, the video files are in two formats - SWF and MP4. I'm using the MP4s (also .webms) as a fallback for mobiles without the Flash player. So, the visitor is first offered the SWF (by swfobject.js) and only if no Flash player is detected is the MP4 option revealed (which makes sense because the MP4s are about 20 times bigger file-size-wise than the equivalent SWF). (Note: Tried Swiffy, but it has no audio on mobiles)
How do I represent the above in a video sitemap? According to Google:
If your landing page features multiple videos, don't create a separate tag for each video. Instead, create a single tag that includes a element for each video on the landing page.
So, assuming that "multiple videos" can also mean the same video in different formats(?), I can do something like this:
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url>
<loc>http://www.mysite.com/funvideos/index.html</loc>
<video:video>
<video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.mysite.com/images/thumbnail.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>My animation in MP4</video:title>
<video:content_loc>www.mysite.com/videos/1.mp4</video:content_loc>
</video:video>
<video:video>
<video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.mysite.com/images/thumbnail.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>My animation in Flash</video:title>
<video:content_loc>www.mysite.com/flash/1.swf</video:content_loc>
</video:video>
</url>
</urlset>
...but search results based on that sitemap could mislead - e.g. someone might take a link to an MP4 video and find themselves (thanks to swfobject) with a less manageable Flash animation (the MP4s have "pause/play", the SWFs don't). If "multiple videos" means only "different videos" it gets even messier. And maybe SWFs are not even considered videos(?). Want to be careful before uploading my sitemap.
