Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) keeps telling us how fantastically popular YouTube is. The short-form-video leader is one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the Internet, with more than 2 billion views per day. Users upload 35 hours' worth of YouTube videos every minute, and 2 billion video views per week are monetized.

But Google doesn't think that's enough. The latest battle cry in the quest for more video: "No video camera? No problem! Create original videos with your own photos, clips, or just an idea."

To spur even more video uploads from its users, Google has made a little portal out of three third-party content creators. Stupeflix makes movies out of your photos and other digital imagery, while GoAnimate and Xtranormal let you make animations out of some text and a few clicks. These services are nothing new, but many prospective users never knew that they existed, so a more prominent promotional place will certainly help them all gain traction.

This is just a start, as Google aims to add more services like these later on. I wouldn't be surprised to see a small-scale buyout or two as Google takes its favorite partners in-house for a more hands-on relationship.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) still runs its Yahoo! Video service, and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) still hasn't killed MySpace Video. Facebook has its own video platform, but I can't remember the last time I saw a shared video on Facebook that wasn't a link to YouTube. Google has a stranglehold on the personal video market and is only gripping it a little tighter today.

Monetizing about one day's worth of video views out of every weekly traffic load seems a little weak, so cash-grabbing projects should be next on Google's wishlist. Growing traffic and engagement seems rather unnecessary at this point.

Is Google wasting its time with this stuff, or do you see real value in no-video video services? Discuss in the comments section below, and don't forget to add Google to your watchlist.