Google Ends Video Carousel Structured Data Test

Google has ended support for the video carousel (limited access) markup documentation and the associated rich results because after testing the structured data they realized that it wasn’t useful at scale. Site publishers who use this specific structured data don’t necessarily have to remove it, other search engines may find it useful. However, Google won’t use it for rich results.

Google removed a paragraph from the section of the documentation that was labeled “Video with key moments in search results”.

Removed paragraph:

Video host carousel (limited access): Enable users to explore your video gallery pages by adding ItemList structured data. This feature is currently limited to a small set of providers. Google Search may automatically show a host carousel for your site without you having to add ItemList structured data.”

Google also removed the entire structured data example.

Screenshot Of Removed Structured Data Example

Screenshot of a webpage featuring a videoobject json-ld structured data example. the text and code snippets are clearly visible, intended to explain how to implement structured data for a video about self-driving bicycles.Screenshot of a webpage featuring a videoobject json-ld structured data example. the text and code snippets are clearly visible, intended to explain how to implement structured data for a video about self-driving bicycles.

Google removed a link to the “Carousel guidelines” from the section titled Guidelines where Google links to specific guideline documentation but curiously the page that’s being linked to still exists.

This is what was removed:

Carousel guidelines

Google removed the following phrase from the “Structured data type definitions” section:

“ItemList: Mark up pages with a list of videos to enable a video host carousel.”

And the entire section listing the recommended properties is now gone.

Screenshot Of Removed Recommended Properties Section

Screenshot of Google structured data documentation that was removedScreenshot of a coding tutorial page showing json code examples for adding video objects to an itemlist, with explanations of the listitem and itemlist properties and urls.

Why Google Removed The Documentation

Google’s developer changelog lists the following reasons why the documentation was removed:

“Removing video carousel (limited access) documentation
What: Removed video carousel guidance from the video structured data documentation.

Why: We initially tested video carousel markup with a group of site owners, and ultimately found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale. You can leave the markup on your site so that search engines and other systems can better understand your web page.”

Read the updated guidance for video structured data

Video (VideoObject, Clip, BroadcastEvent) structured data

View an archive of the old structured data documentation

Archive of Video (VideoObject, Clip, BroadcastEvent) structured data

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Koshiro K