Weekly Update - January 14, 2017: YouTube, Google+, Hangouts and more

My top updates this week:

• YouTube introduces Super Chat fan payments in live chats and highlights creators “On the Rise”
• Google+ is using machine learning (RAISR) to significantly - but hopefully imperceptibly - reduce image size and bandwith
• Hangouts has streamlined group chat creation

Plus more updates and tips for YouTube, Google+, webmasters, AdSense publishers, maps users and much more.

Image: Garish (2007) By aussiegall from sydney, Australia (Garish) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Upcoming

• 18 January: Free webinar: Blogger, beyond text with me! 
• 23 January: Deadline to enter the Elton John: The Cut contest
• 31 January: YouTube Super Chat launches broadly 
• 28 February: YouTube Fan Funding retired
• 25 April: Most Hangouts video call apps will be retired

YouTube and Video Creation

• YouTube says hello to live Super Chat payments, goodbye to Fan Funding (YouTube Blog)
• YouTube highlighting creators and artists who are “On The Rise” in a new section of our Trending Tab (YouTube Creators)
• Create an official music video for Elton John (The Cut, YouTube Creators)
• Download your Vine videos and captions before January 17! (Krishna De)
• Screen recording and video editing on the Android Pixel: YouTube Gaming + Adobe Premiere Clip (me)
• Add visual effects and music to your video when you upload with the YouTube Android app (me)
• Over 50% of YouTube’s Audience is Female (Think with Google)
• PornHub 2016 stats: 64 million visits per day, 99GB streamed every second, new top search term: Overwatch (Porn Hub)
• Holy Foley! A history of audio effects (Vimeo)

Go Live

• YouTube says hello to live Super Chat payments in live chats (YouTube Blog)
• Facebook Live updates: video page permalink, go live via web browser, add a Live Contributor and more (Facebook Media Blog)
• NEW - Customise your captions for your Facebook videos and Facebook Live replays (Krishna De)

Google+ and Spaces

• Google+ iOS update: fast and easy YouTube video posting (Michael Wattendorf)
• Google+ uses machine learning RAISR to provide up to 75% bandwith savings per image served (John Nack)
• What makes a comment great? (Rand Fishkin)
• Google+ Community Managers Guide (Luke Wroblewski)
• Guide: Creating High Quality Google+ Collections (Luke Wroblewski)
• This month on Google+ (Google+)
• Google+ Create em Português 2016 (Carolina Liu)

Other social media

• Introducing: The Facebook Journalism Project (Facebook Media Blog)
• Bringing Wide Color to Instagram (Instagram Engineering blog)
• Full-Screen Ads Coming to Instagram Stories; Insights, Too (AdWeek)
• The Brief, Glorious Run Of Ad-Free Instagram Stories Is Now Over (Consumerist)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• Straighten your photo horizon with Google Photos (Geeks on Tour)

Google for businesses

• Google My Business testing basic website builder for small businesses in India and Australia (Mike Blumenthal)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Google Webmasters Office Hours (January 13) (Google Webmasters)
• Google intrusive interstitials mobile penalty now rolling out (SEO Roundtable)
• Hot startup Cloudflare is putting itself right in the middle of a crucial battle between Google and Facebook (Yahoo Finance)

AdSense and advertising

• AdSense introduces "Ad Balance" to help you focus on your best-performing ads (Inside AdSense blog)
• AdSense Publishers: the Valuable Inventory policy determines how many ads you can have per page (AskTheAdSenseGuy @ Search Engine Journal)
• Google Squashed a Chrome Extension that Flooded Ad Networks With Disinformation (Motherboard)

Hangouts and Messaging

• Hangouts update: Streamlining group chat creation on the web (G Suite Updates blog)
• Google Voice may be getting an upgrade (TechCrunch)
• Reported “backdoor” in WhatsApp is in fact a feature, defenders say (Ars Technica)
• If you want truly private communication, use Signal or Wire (romaub @ Medium)

Nexus, Pixel, Android, Project Fi

• Overview: Android at CES 2017 (Android)
• Android Wear 2.0 is launching in early February (Android Police)
• Google Assistant on the Pixel finally gains the ability to take screenshots (9to5Google)
• How to Get Google Play on a Kindle Fire and Install Any Android App You Want (Lifehacker)
• Google Pixel Is Just As Secure As The iPhone (Michael Brown)

Productivity

• New year, new look: Google Maps ride services mode gets an update (Google Blog)
• Level 2+ Local Guides can create list of places in Google Maps (Google Local Guides)

Privacy and Security

• Highly effective Gmail phishing technique used to hack Google accounts (Wordfence)
• Convenient is often not secure: browser autofill can be used to steal personal details (The Guardian)
• Adobe angers Chrome users by bundling browser plugin with security update (Ars Technica)

More around the web

• The Inside Story of BitTorrent’s Bizarre Collapse (Backchannel)
• Wearables can save your life (Vic Gundotra, CEO, AliveCor) (Kara Swisher @ Recode Decode)
• Breaking it down: A Q&A on machine learning (Maya Gupta, Life at Google)
• That mystery Go player crushing the world’s best online? It was AlphaGo again (Ars Technica)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links