A growing trend among REALTORs has been to replace their old school Virtual Tours with a You Tube video that they incorporate into their blog, site and even onto REALTOR.com. Actually, the cool part was that you could put them ANYWHERE.
No problem!
Well ummm…actually there is a problem with that. YouTube’s Terms of Service are for personal or non-commercial use according to a recent article in REALTOR magazine.
I just wanted to pass this along as FWIW (for what it’s worth) to Bloodhound Blog readers who may be currently putting your Virtual Tours on YouTube.
Sue says:
Thanks for this info Eric, I was seriously getting ready to do this…seemed good.
March 1, 2008 — 7:16 pm
Todd Carpenter says:
All the more reason to check out WellcomeMat. I like their little embed viewer better anyway.
March 1, 2008 — 7:22 pm
Eric Blackwell says:
Exactly, Todd. There are alternatives. As long as we know the rules, playing the game gets easier.
Sue- It (the concept) IS good IMO. Like Todd says…just a change of venue.
Best
Eric
March 1, 2008 — 7:36 pm
Chuchundra says:
Um…that’s not what the YouTube TOS says.
http://www.youtube.com/t/terms
March 1, 2008 — 9:01 pm
Robert Kerr says:
YouTube’s Terms of Service are for personal or non-commercial use according to a recent article in REALTOR magazine.
Do Craigslist’s TOS prohibit commercial use, too?
March 1, 2008 — 9:04 pm
Cheryl Johnson says:
Robert… Here is a link to the Craigslist Terms of Use http://www.craigslist.org/about/terms.of.use.html
March 2, 2008 — 4:36 am
Jim Kimmons says:
I’ve never put a virtual tour up on YouTube. However, I’ve had, without notice or comment, more than a dozen videos removed by YouTube.
The only thing I could find that would have caused this act was a set of credits at the end naming my company and giving an email address and phone number.
March 2, 2008 — 9:31 am
Benn says:
This is actually great news. There are alternative hosting companies for video with much better players and better editing options designed for exactly this purpose. I think the overall product will improve for the consumer and create better venues for buyers.
March 2, 2008 — 9:59 am
JTB Summit says:
Wow, I never thought of that, but then I had not wanted to do youtube video’s of my listings up. There is a local agent that is doing it though, wonder when that will be put to a stop?
March 2, 2008 — 9:43 pm
Jeff Turner says:
Based on how I read their terms, Realtor.com’s post is not accurate. Which in turn makes this post inaccurate.
Not all commercial use is prohibited on YouTube. Original real estate videos would fall under “Commercial Uses NOT Prohibited. In addition to Chuchundra’s link and quote above, this link is also relevant.
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=71011
March 3, 2008 — 5:29 pm
Real Estate for Sale on YouTube says:
Search on real estate for sale and there are 11,000 listings on YouTube. Doesn’t look like they’re banning anything to me….
March 4, 2008 — 8:55 am
Wayne Long says:
Sounds like they are mostly opposed to generating direct revenue from the videos and not against using them to enhance a traditional site or blog. I don’t know if that distinction makes sense but that is the way I read it.
March 9, 2008 — 5:38 pm