Peggy Ks Tips and Tricks

This has been an eventful week in the US, with protests against police brutality and racial injustice in all 50 states. With that as a backdrop, there have been few product updates. Most tech companies have made  statements of support, and some, including Google, have pledged to make platform changes and donate money or resources in support of the Black community. And yes, Black lives matter.
YouTube has updated the information provided to Partners for monetization self-certification, providing detailed examples of what types of content can and cannot show ads.Google Chat - the successor to chat in classic Hangouts - is expanding to more G Suite customers. By switching to “Chat Preferred”, Chat replaces Hangouts in Gmail, and the Hangouts app and extension stop working. Hangouts can still be used at hangouts.google.com. Chat and Hangouts are interoperable for 1:1 discussions, and the classic Hangouts bot provides Hangouts notifications inside Chat. Chat isn’t available for personal Goo…

Starting today, G Suite administrators can migrate their users from classic Hangouts to "Chat preferred". Previously this option was only available to a small group of G Suite customers in the Chat Accelerated Transition Program.
Google Chat (chat.google.com) features include:  Direct 1:1 messaging that is interoperable with classic HangoutsDirect group messaging Rooms for "ongoing long-term chats"Edit text in a conversation after it was sentGoogle Drive file sharing, in addition to photo and video sharingBots to help you (or have some fun) There is a handy Hangouts vs. Chat comparison page with more details.

In August 2019 Google announced that the transition from classic Hangouts to Google Chat for all G Suite users would begin in "late 2020", and that is the phase we are entering now.   This appears to be slightly ahead of schedule, as Phase 3 was originally in the "first half of 2020", and here we are still in the first half (even though 2020 has…

To all the 2020 grads out there: congratulations! This is a rough time to be launching the next stage of your life, but hopefully things will get better.
The big news this week is that venerable Google Groups is rolling out a new interface. Plus there are a number of small updates this week for video creators, webmasters, business owners and more.
Video and Live StreamingYouTube Poll Cards are being discontinued as of June 10. You have until July 10 to download your poll card data. Why the change? Poll cards were “rarely used”. 
Video Chapters are rolling out to all channels. Add timestamps in the video description (starting with 0:00) and markers will appear at the bottom of the video player. This makes it easier for viewers to jump to specific sections of your video.If you watch YouTube videos on your Android phone, you will now see optional topics in your subscription feed, including “Today”, “Continue Watching”, “Unwatched”, “Live” and “Posts”. The YouTube app for iOS devices have h…

This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day in the US, to honor military personnel who died serving in the US armed forces. In normal years many folks treat it as the first weekend of summer, with barbecues and trips to the beach. This year, with many of us still mostly confined at home, it will be a quieter holiday, with perhaps a bit more reflection than partying.

There are new features this week for Blogger bloggers, AdSense publishers, YouTubers, along with updates to video calling tools and more.
Google Cloud Next is Google’s annual conference focused on cloud technology. Originally scheduled for the first week of April, it’s been transformed into Cloud Next OnAir, a free 9 week online event. Starting July 14th, it will include presentations, interactive demos, breakout sessions, and 1:1 meetings with Google experts. Every week will focus on a new topic, from industry insights, tools for productivity and collaboration (the sessions I'm most interested in), infrastructure, securi…

If your AdSense earnings have dropped, the new AdSense Earnings Checklist can help you review your reports to understand why your earnings decreased, and offers best practices to optimize your earnings.  Note that the troubleshooter is for AdSense publishers monetizing a website or blog. If your YouTube earnings have dropped, check out the YouTube Creator Academy courses on using YouTube Analytics to understand your earnings. Use the Revenue tab in YouTube Analytics to understand where your revenue comes from and review your channel's ad revenue metrics.
An earnings drop can be caused by a decrease in the amount you earn per ad click (CPC), a decrease in the number of clicks on your site's ads (CTR), a decrease in the number of ad impressions, or a combination of those factors. 
Understanding all the factors that affect your earnings and updating your site will take some time. I recommend setting aside the time to go through all the troubleshooting steps thoroughly.  How to use th…

Blogger announced that the new account interface will be the default for many users by late June. Currently new Blogger users are defaulted to the new interface. And by late July you will no longer be able to revert back to classic Blogger.
The new Blogger interface has a mobile-friendly responsive layout, new look, and has features that make it easier to manage your blog's content, comments, stats and settings. The first bits and pieces of the new interface were launched last September.
For now you can still switch between new Blogger and classic Blogger. 
Click the big orange Try the new Blogger button at the bottom of the left menu to try the new interface.
If you want to switch back to the old interface, click the Return to Classic Blogger link.  And let the Blogger team know what you think! Click the ? icon at the top of the page and select the Send Feedback option. A screenshot will be included with your feedback.  What's newTake a quick tour of the new Blogger. Posts (and Page…

Are you tired of video meetings yet? This week you can start or join a Google Meet meeting in Gmail, easily find Zooms new security features, or video chat with friends in your favorite Discord Server or Facebook Room.

Plus you can finally move your music and playlists from Google Play Music to YouTube Music, YouTube shows when your video is being “checked” for ad suitability, plus updates for live streamers, businesses owners and more. YouTube Updates  You can now transfer your playlists, purchases, uploaded music and likes from Google Play Music to YouTube Music. You can also transfer your podcasts to Google Podcasts. YouTube Music originally launched in 2015 as a music-centered app, then relaunched as a music streaming service in 2018. Google Play Music will eventually be retired, but YouTube says “we’ll provide plenty of notice ahead of users no longer having access to Google Play Music later this year.”YouTube will now display a “checking” icon when your monetized video is being…