This week is all about generative AI, with new music creation tools and labeling requirements on YouTube, Microsoft Copilot widely available, generative AI features being added everywhere and a new statement from Google on their AI principles .
Plus there are updates for YouTube, AdSense, Google Photos, Google Search, Instagram, Twitch, Bing, Vimeo and more.
Top news and updates this week
- YouTube will be implementing a new requirement to label realistic looking synthetic AI content.
- YouTube and Google DeepMind have created new AI music generation tools.
- Instagram has updated their Reels editor with new features.
- There is an updated ad review center for AdSense, AdMob and Google Ad Manager.
- There was a problem with AdSense GDPR messaging that could affect your earnings.
- Google Search Labs lets you add publicly visible Notes to search results (and on your new Google Profile).
- You can “Follow” a particular search in the Google app.
- If you offer courses from your own website add new course info structured data to appear in Google Search.
- Google Search Console has a new robots.txt report, and the old robots.txt testing tool is being deprecated.
- Google Photos has new AI-powered organization for your photo gallery.
- Bing Chat AI is now Microsoft Copilot. Try it at copilot.microsoft.com.
- Starred conversations in Google Chat let you easily save important messages.
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My New Tips and Tutorials
Configure your YouTube channel’s new “For You” section to help viewers find more of your content to watch: blog post, ShortYouTube has relaxed the advertiser-friendly Adult Content guidelines for breastfeeding and sensual dancing: blog post
Find out what the heck happened to your YouTube channel’s About tab: Short
YouTube requires labeling of some AI-Generated Content
YouTube announced new policies around the disclosure and labeling of AI-generated content.Creators will be required to label realistic looking (or sounding) altered or synthetic content. That isn’t limited to content created with AI tools, but that will often be the case. YouTube will add a notice in the description, and for sensitive topics there may be a notice in the video player itself.
A similar label will appear on videos created with YouTube’s generative AI tools.
Creators who don’t label their synthetic realistic-seeming content, especially for sensitive topics (such as elections or health topics), may have their videos removed and could be suspended from the YouTube Partner Program.
The privacy complaint process will also be updated to be able to request removal of AI-generated or otherwise synthetic content that appears to be a real person.
Similarly, YouTube’s music partners will be able to request removal of videos that mimics a music artist’s unique singing voice.
YouTube and DeepMind create AI music generation tools
DeepMind is Google’s AI research and development lab. They developed Lyria, an advanced AI music generation model.They partnered with YouTube to create two experimental music generation tools.
DreamTrack in Shorts lets you create 30 second music clips by typing a prompt and selecting a participating artist (currently Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Papoose, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan). That generates a track in the artist’s voice and style.
Music AI Tools let you create new music by turning your humming into a guitar riff or played by horns, or changing the genre of a song.
Generated tracks have an embedded SynthID audio watermark that identifies it as synthetic. That should be detectable even if the track has added noise or is sped up (or slowed down).
DreamTrack is currently only available to a limited number of US creators. Music AI Tools will be available in the coming year.
You can view Shorts using AI-generated DreamTracks by checking the #DreamTrackAI hashtag on YouTube. I recommend @CleoAbram’s demo to start.
View those shorts on your mobile device, and you should see the option to remix the audio. That lets you create a new Short using the audio clip.
Click the red icon next to the Short to see all other Shorts that used the same audio clip.
Note that if you use DreamTrack audio in a long-form video, it cannot be monetized with ads or YouTube Premium subscription revenue.
Updated Ad Review Center for AdSense
The AdSense Ad Review Center lets you view the ads that have appeared on your website and block or report them if needed.The updated Ad Review Center for AdSense, AdMob and Google Ad Manager has a bunch of improvements:
- More area to view ads
- Improved filters
- Easier bulk actions
- Improved image search
- Improved detail view, with more metadata and a “Related Ads” tab
AdSense GDPR Messaging Issue
Between November 8 and 15 at least some newly created GDPR Transparency and Consent strings for AdSense, AdMob and Google Ad Manager didn’t work correctly. Visitors to your site or app may have been incorrectly prevented from being served ads.GDPR is the European Union’s data protection law.
What is the impact? “When running AdSense reports that span the impact period you may observe a decrease in overall traffic or country-specific traffic for countries under the scope of GDPR enforcement.”
More information.
Google Search Labs Notes
If you have enabled the experimental Google Search Labs for your Google Account, you can opt in to the new Notes feature. This lets you add a Story-like note to a Google Search Result or Discover article, which will appear with that result or on your new public Google Profile (profile.google.com).To add a Note, look for the “Add a note” button in Google Search or Discover results. You may also be able to add a note while viewing content in the Google App by tapping the “Add note” button at top right.
The Note editor lets you create a note with a colored background, text, an
image, and stickers. In the US there will also be the option to add an
AI-generated image. It looks very much like an Instagram Story card.
And what about the owners of the websites that have a note added? Google says “In the months ahead, we’ll actively explore ways to provide site owners insights into notes on their content.” So there are no insights or way to respond to Notes at this time
Google has also said that Notes will not affect website ranking. The Notes for a particular web page are ranked amongst themselves.
If this takes off, I am expecting Google will add a “Follow” option, just like there is in Google Maps for Local Guides.
More information:
Enable Notes in Search Labs (as of this writing I don’t see Notes as an option, so it may still be rolling out)
Learn more about Notes in Search
Learn more about Google Profiles
Notes Community Guidelines
Photo Stacks groups similar images taken at around the same time. It will display the “top pick” (which you can change) and hide the rest of the images.
Screenshots and docs are automatically categorized into category albums like receipts, event information, IDs and notes. You can choose to archive screenshots and documents automatically after 30 days (they will still be available in the dedicated albums). And event dates and times will be automatically detected in the screenshots, with the option of creating a reminder and Calendar event that link back to that image.
Instagram and Facebook have added a new Reels metric: “Replays”. “Replays” are now included in the “Plays” stats, so that number may increase. In the coming months, they will be adding audience retention charts as well.
The new Twitch Privacy Center is live, with information about how to control your privacy settings and what Twitch does with your data.
Vimeo is offering a new Vimeo Marketing package, with video customization (multiple audio tracks, video player branding, automated captions in multiple languages), Vimeo’s video editor, integration with CRM platforms, and YouTube integration.
TikTok has a new “Add to Music App” option that lets viewers save the songs in TikTok videos to their favorite music streaming service, including Amazon Music and Spotify.
Microsoft is launching “Generative AI Captions” in Bing. “By analyzing a search query, it extracts the most pertinent insights from web pages, and skillfully transforms them into highly relevant and easily digestible snippets.” Web publishers can opt out by adding NOCACHE or NOARCHIVE tags, and Bing will respect MAXSNIPPET and NOSNIPPET tags.
Blogger has been sending notices to legacy account users that have not migrated to the Google Account system, mentioning their Blogger may be deleted in 60 days. The Google Account login has been required since 2007, so these notices are going to accounts that have not been signed into for many years. Probably coincidentally, Google will start deleting inactive accounts in December. Blogger expert Irsah has the scoop.
Google Search Console has a new robots.txt report, including when the robots.txt was fetched and if there are any errors. Sadly that means they are deprecating the old robots.txt testing tool, which will only be available through December 12.
If you offer a course on your own website, add the new course structured data to have the course information appear in the Google Search results. Details can include pricing, educational level, ratings, and length. Plus there is Learning video structured data for educational videos, soon to be included in Google Search Console Performance reports.
News for Chrome extension publishers: Google will require all extensions to be migrated to Manifest V3 by June 2024. If you are a developer, see the technical details here. If you use ad blocking extensions, some may no longer work after this transition (although ad blocker AdGuard has written that it’s cautiously optimistic about the change).
Google has added the option to “Follow” a search to see related articles and videos on Discover (the Google app home screen), and you may be notified of “timely” or “important” updates.
Google’s Search Generative Experience may end up being best used for shopping, rather than trying to find factual information (which doesn’t always work well). Now if you search for specific types of gifts, it will show you a bunch of subcategories (with things to buy, of course), and you can use the image generation tool to create a photorealistic image of what you want to buy (like a colorful jacket) and Google will show matching products for sale. Sign up for Google Search Labs.
Google has updated their Search Quality Rater Guidelines. There is no major change in the guidelines, rather they “simplified the "Needs Met" scale definitions, added more guidance for different kinds of web pages and modern examples including newer content formats such as short form video, removed outdated and redundant examples, and expanded rating guidance for forum and discussion pages”.
Instagram has added new filters for photos and improved the interface for finding images in your camera roll.
Google published their AI Opportunity Agenda, with policy recommendations for governments, including investment in international AI research and development , creating a "global AI Corps to build an AI-ready workforce", building government use and expertise in AI tools.
Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise are now called Copilot. You can try Copilot “Your everyday AI companion” at copilot.microsoft.com. Enterprise accounts can make it more useful with third party plugins.
Microsoft Teams now has Copilot AI integration including in-meeting meeting summaries without a retained transcript (if desired) and real-time notes, writing assistance in Teams Chat, and summaries of discussions in Teams Channels. In video meetings there’s a fun new “Decorate your Background” option that lets participants use AI to generate a background that enhances their real-world room (decorate, clean up clutter, improve the furniture) and new Snapchat AR filters. There are also accessibility updates, including captions formatting and new keyboard shortcuts.
Microsoft Mesh is a new 3D immersive space for work, including avatars (sadly, without legs), 3D environments, seat assignments, and spatial audio, live reactions and interactive activities. They don’t call it the metaverse, but that’s what it looks like.
If you want to use Google Meet to make an announcement or run a webinar, you can set the other meeting participants as viewers. Meet product expert Nina Trankova explains how to do that.
Google Meet captions are now available in Finnish and Hebrew, and English (UK), French (Canadian), Polish, Romanian, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese captions are out of beta.
You can now star messages in Google Chat. The new Chat navigation shortcuts let you view your starred messages with a single click. This is a feature I’ve been wanting for a long time! Chat also has added the enhanced search query suggestions you can find in the mobile app to Chat on desktop.
If you use Google Chat install the Google Drive app to be able to reply to and resolve comments on Docs, Slides and Sheets directly in Google Chat. How to add apps to Chat (available to both personal and Google Workspace accounts).
You can now view your Tasks in Google Calendar in full screen on desktop. See how it works.
Elizabeth Minkel at Wired: Tumblr is Always Dying
That’s all the updates for this week. Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get the November 11 edition here.
Image: From Canva, free for commercial use
- Available in English in the US, and Hindi and English in India (previously Google had invited paid users adding Notes)
- Not all search results are eligible for Notes
- Notes can only be created in the Android or iOS Google app
- Notes can be viewed on mobile or desktop (and may be accessible through search)
- Notes will be visible on your Google Profile (profile.google.com), but that is not available everywhere
And what about the owners of the websites that have a note added? Google says “In the months ahead, we’ll actively explore ways to provide site owners insights into notes on their content.” So there are no insights or way to respond to Notes at this time
Google has also said that Notes will not affect website ranking. The Notes for a particular web page are ranked amongst themselves.
If this takes off, I am expecting Google will add a “Follow” option, just like there is in Google Maps for Local Guides.
More information:
Enable Notes in Search Labs (as of this writing I don’t see Notes as an option, so it may still be rolling out)
Learn more about Notes in Search
Learn more about Google Profiles
Notes Community Guidelines
Organize your Google Photos
Google Photos is adding two new AI-powered features to help keep your gallery of images organized:Photo Stacks groups similar images taken at around the same time. It will display the “top pick” (which you can change) and hide the rest of the images.
Screenshots and docs are automatically categorized into category albums like receipts, event information, IDs and notes. You can choose to archive screenshots and documents automatically after 30 days (they will still be available in the dedicated albums). And event dates and times will be automatically detected in the screenshots, with the option of creating a reminder and Calendar event that link back to that image.
Video Creator Updates
Instagram is updating the Reels video editor, including scale, crop and rotate clips; undo and redo; new English text-to-speech voices, and new ways to access trending audio. They are also testing custom stickers created from your photos or videos.Instagram and Facebook have added a new Reels metric: “Replays”. “Replays” are now included in the “Plays” stats, so that number may increase. In the coming months, they will be adding audience retention charts as well.
The new Twitch Privacy Center is live, with information about how to control your privacy settings and what Twitch does with your data.
Vimeo is offering a new Vimeo Marketing package, with video customization (multiple audio tracks, video player branding, automated captions in multiple languages), Vimeo’s video editor, integration with CRM platforms, and YouTube integration.
TikTok has a new “Add to Music App” option that lets viewers save the songs in TikTok videos to their favorite music streaming service, including Amazon Music and Spotify.
Web Publishers and Search
AdSense for Search and Search Ads will no longer be served from google.com. Instead they will be served from www.adsensecustomsearchads.com and syndicatedsearch.goog . That means no Google cookie will be served to site visitors, and they will thus not see personalized ads. This is expected to have little impact on ad revenue, as the search ads are usually served based on the search query anyway.Microsoft is launching “Generative AI Captions” in Bing. “By analyzing a search query, it extracts the most pertinent insights from web pages, and skillfully transforms them into highly relevant and easily digestible snippets.” Web publishers can opt out by adding NOCACHE or NOARCHIVE tags, and Bing will respect MAXSNIPPET and NOSNIPPET tags.
Blogger has been sending notices to legacy account users that have not migrated to the Google Account system, mentioning their Blogger may be deleted in 60 days. The Google Account login has been required since 2007, so these notices are going to accounts that have not been signed into for many years. Probably coincidentally, Google will start deleting inactive accounts in December. Blogger expert Irsah has the scoop.
Google Search Console has a new robots.txt report, including when the robots.txt was fetched and if there are any errors. Sadly that means they are deprecating the old robots.txt testing tool, which will only be available through December 12.
If you offer a course on your own website, add the new course structured data to have the course information appear in the Google Search results. Details can include pricing, educational level, ratings, and length. Plus there is Learning video structured data for educational videos, soon to be included in Google Search Console Performance reports.
News for Chrome extension publishers: Google will require all extensions to be migrated to Manifest V3 by June 2024. If you are a developer, see the technical details here. If you use ad blocking extensions, some may no longer work after this transition (although ad blocker AdGuard has written that it’s cautiously optimistic about the change).
Google has added the option to “Follow” a search to see related articles and videos on Discover (the Google app home screen), and you may be notified of “timely” or “important” updates.
Google’s Search Generative Experience may end up being best used for shopping, rather than trying to find factual information (which doesn’t always work well). Now if you search for specific types of gifts, it will show you a bunch of subcategories (with things to buy, of course), and you can use the image generation tool to create a photorealistic image of what you want to buy (like a colorful jacket) and Google will show matching products for sale. Sign up for Google Search Labs.
Google has updated their Search Quality Rater Guidelines. There is no major change in the guidelines, rather they “simplified the "Needs Met" scale definitions, added more guidance for different kinds of web pages and modern examples including newer content formats such as short form video, removed outdated and redundant examples, and expanded rating guidance for forum and discussion pages”.
Social Media
A number of major advertisers, including Apple and Disney, have paused their ad campaigns on X due to Elon Musk’s behavior and a report from Media Matters that ads are being shown next to white nationalist and neo-Nazi content. Musk, of course, blames Media Matters and the advertisers.Instagram has added new filters for photos and improved the interface for finding images in your camera roll.
More AI Updates
The OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT and DALL-E) board of directors fired CEO and co-founder Sam Altman Friday afternoon, stating he was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board.” This was apparently a huge surprise to all concerned, and it’s not clear what the fallout will be.Google published their AI Opportunity Agenda, with policy recommendations for governments, including investment in international AI research and development , creating a "global AI Corps to build an AI-ready workforce", building government use and expertise in AI tools.
Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise are now called Copilot. You can try Copilot “Your everyday AI companion” at copilot.microsoft.com. Enterprise accounts can make it more useful with third party plugins.
Communication and Collaboration
Google Maps has updated the Lists feature to make it easy to create a collaborative map with a group of family or friends. You can also let your opinion be known by adding emoji reactions to others’ Maps reviews, photos, and videos.Microsoft Teams now has Copilot AI integration including in-meeting meeting summaries without a retained transcript (if desired) and real-time notes, writing assistance in Teams Chat, and summaries of discussions in Teams Channels. In video meetings there’s a fun new “Decorate your Background” option that lets participants use AI to generate a background that enhances their real-world room (decorate, clean up clutter, improve the furniture) and new Snapchat AR filters. There are also accessibility updates, including captions formatting and new keyboard shortcuts.
Microsoft Mesh is a new 3D immersive space for work, including avatars (sadly, without legs), 3D environments, seat assignments, and spatial audio, live reactions and interactive activities. They don’t call it the metaverse, but that’s what it looks like.
If you want to use Google Meet to make an announcement or run a webinar, you can set the other meeting participants as viewers. Meet product expert Nina Trankova explains how to do that.
Google Meet captions are now available in Finnish and Hebrew, and English (UK), French (Canadian), Polish, Romanian, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese captions are out of beta.
You can now star messages in Google Chat. The new Chat navigation shortcuts let you view your starred messages with a single click. This is a feature I’ve been wanting for a long time! Chat also has added the enhanced search query suggestions you can find in the mobile app to Chat on desktop.
If you use Google Chat install the Google Drive app to be able to reply to and resolve comments on Docs, Slides and Sheets directly in Google Chat. How to add apps to Chat (available to both personal and Google Workspace accounts).
You can now view your Tasks in Google Calendar in full screen on desktop. See how it works.
More Reading
Google took legal action against “bad actors” who submitted thousands of false DMCA copyright takedown notices to take down their competitors in Google Search.Elizabeth Minkel at Wired: Tumblr is Always Dying
That’s all the updates for this week. Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get the November 11 edition here.
Image: From Canva, free for commercial use
I want to do an interview. I mentioned it before. When and how should we do it?
ReplyDeleteAn interview about creating content on the web.
ReplyDeleteAdsense does not approve my site due to plagiarized content. Would it be beneficial to delete plagiarized content on my website? Or what should I do?
ReplyDeleteI personally think you should make sure that your website only includes content that you created yourself, or that you have explicit permission or a license to use. Those are best practices for both AdSense and for appearing in search (and just in general).
DeleteHow can I delete the post I deleted from the blog from the RSS content?
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is any way for the post to be removed from the RSS feed. When the feed updates, it may be removed, but that may only happen when you publish a new post.
DeleteWhat if I just embed someone else's YouTube video, won't Adsense approve that too?
DeleteYouTube videos that comply with the AdSense content guidelines can be embedded, but there needs to be enough non-video content on the page to support the ads. That is not only AdSense policy, but YouTube embedded video policy (see the YouTube Terms of Service "Permissions and Restrictions" section).
DeleteYou say: It may be a video, but the entire site should be indexed to text, is it true?
DeleteYes, AdSense may use text on your site to place relevant ads, and checks text for compliance with AdSense policy. But part of that policy is that any embedded content, including videos, must also comply with the content policies. And you must have enough other content to support the ads on that page.
Delete