Skip to main content

Posts

Creators: Get the latest tips, tutorials and updates!

Are you a video creator, blogger, content collector or curator? Subscribe to get news and tutorials for YouTube, Blogger, AdSense, and other creator tools, platforms, social media, and more!  Learn more about me . Last updated January 2025       Subscribe to the RSS feed      Subscribe to Weekly Creator Updates only Subscribe to my Weekly Creator Newsletter by email Creator Weekly Live!  Join me live on Sundays at 10:30 AM Pacific to discuss the week's creator updates.  Watch or set a notification. Watch previous episodes: Tips, Tutorials & Updates       Blogger Tutorials & Updates        YouTube  and  Live Streaming  Tutorials & Updates        Chat and Meet  Tutorials & Update...
Recent posts

Creator Weekly: YouTube video copyright details, Bluesky traffic, Ghost ActivityPub integration

Spring has sprung, flowers are in bloom , and tech companies shared lots of updates. I suspect it’s the “launch by the end of Q1” rush. This week there are updates for video on YouTube and LinkedIn, for live streamers from Twitch, Kick, and Restream, for publishers using Ghost and AdSense, and for social users on Bluesky and Threads. Plus a bunch of Gemini and other AI updates. Pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and dig in! 📨 Subscribe to get Creator Weekly by email. Top news and updates this week YouTube improved the video copyright claims details page in YouTube Studio. YouTube has improved the member content feed on mobile. YouTube is experimenting with text and sticker placement guides in the Shorts editor. YouTube is testing an option to let viewers hide video end screens. YouTube is asking some creators to help build AI protection tools. YouTube also answered more questions about the upcoming mid-roll update, recapped top updates in the past year, and shared detail...

10 Years Ago This Week: YouTube Launches Immersive 360 video

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015 that still resonate 10 years later. This update was for the  week ending March 14, 2015 . Ten years ago this week YouTube launched 360-degree video.   YouTube even worked with camera companies to make sure their 360-degree cameras were compatible with the platform.  If you were wearing a virtual reality headset you would be totally immersed, and be able to look all around you as the video played.    At launch, the videos would only play correctly in the Android app or in Chrome on the web. But it was a step towards " virtual reality becoming a reality ". Today 360-degree video is available in the YouTube mobile app for Android or iOS, or in the Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Opera browser. If you view the videos in a browser, you can use your cursor to drag them around.    The orig...

Creator Weekly: Meta Community Notes, Facebook Stories Monetization, YouTube Monetizatoin

Spring is in the air! I’ve been thinking about this year’s garden, contemplating a spring cleaning project (although I usually don’t get far beyond the thinking part) and hoping for a week of sunshine so my favorite hike is less muddy. This week I live streamed about my 15 years (!) as a Google Product Expert and I shared some cool swag I received from YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello! This week’s big update is Meta testing Community Notes (which I’m skeptical of), with additional updates from YouTube, Facebook, Bluesky, Reddit and more. Plus more Gemini features and tools across Google. 📨 Subscribe to get Creator Weekly by email. Top news and updates this week Meta is testing Community Notes in the US for Facebook , Instagram and Threads , to replace 3rd party fact checkers. YouTube Creator Collective events are happening in all US states. Sign up today! YouTube shared additional information about the mid-roll ad changes that will go into effect in May. Y...

10 Years Ago This Week: Google tried to ban porn on Blogger

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015 that still resonate 10 years later. This update was for the  week ending March 2, 2015 . Ten years ago, Google ban porn on Blogger, then quickly reversed themselves after user pushback. On February 23, 2015 Google announced that Blogger blogs would no longer be able to "publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity" This was a big change, because Blogger had allowed sexual content and nudity since it launched in 1999. And was one of the few platforms that did. In 2013 Blogger had  banned ads for adult websites , and monetizing adult content, but not the adult content itself. The change would go into effect on March 23, and at that point any existing blogs with explicit content would be made private. That meant that no content would be deleted, but only the blog owners, admins, and specific people the blog was shared with would be a...

Creator Weekly: YouTube Online Gambling Policy, Reddit Post Scans, Google Search AI Mode

This week Google Search’s AI Mode made a splash, YouTube tightened its gambling content policies, Reddit is scanning draft posts and providing stats, Pinterest is using your content for AI training, and lots more. 📨 Subscribe to get Creator Weekly by email. International Women’s Day The Google Product Expert Program posted a video to celebrate Women’s History Month, where I say a few things. Check it out! Celebrating International Women on Twitch! #WomenofTikTok: Celebrating extraordinary women driving real-world change Google’s Doodle celebrates women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), slightly oddly not actually depicting any women. Google's other International Women's Day highlights : women's works highlighted in Google Play (apps, games books), YouTube Music, Women in Cloud Technology and Business. Plus a new custom background for Google Meet. Top news and updates this week Google releases Search AI Mode . Google Gemini’s “extensions” are now “...

10 Years Ago This Week: Mobilegeddon!

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015 that still resonate 10 years later. This update was for the  week ending February 28, 2015 . On February 26, 2015 Google Search announced that they would be " finding more mobile-friendly websites in the search results " by using mobile-friendliness of web pages as a ranking signal for searches on mobile devices.  The goal: "users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices." Ever an imaginative (and melodramatic) bunch, search engine optimizers (SEOs) started calling it Mobilegeddon.  Watch the Mobilegeddon! short on YouTube. While this change ushered in the start of the mobile-first era for Google Search, this first update wasn't too brutal, at least in restrospect.  It only affected Search rankings on mobile devices, and would apply to individual web pages, rather than entire websites.  The change would go in...