Google has launched Sitemaps for Video, an extension of their webmaster sitemaps program that will assist webmasters in having their videos indexed by Google.

To be indexed, webmasters must create a sitemap page that provides a list of videos on each site that is compliant with Googles sitemaps protocol, which since November 2006 is standardized with Yahoo and Microsoft as well. Webmasters then simply submit the URL of their video sitemap to Google for indexing.

Google has continued to improve its video index beyond its early days when it started as nothing more as an index of Google Videos. Webmasters keen to see their videos indexed in Google will undoubtedly welcome this move, and Google’s video index will be the richer for it.