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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...
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Ten Years Ago This Week: YouTube Puts a Nail in Flash's Coffin

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 1, 2015. Ten years ago this week, YouTube started defaulting to the HTML5 video player , which was one more nail in the coffin for Adobe Flash. Watch the Short  version below.    Flash in 2015 Internet Archive Flash Showcase If you remember the internet in the 2000s and 2010s, Flash was everywhere. It powered lots of games, really slow loading web sites, and of course video players. Want to relive those days? The Internet Archive has a " curated collection of interesting or historical Flash animations and games" , running with an emulator . In 2015 Flash was already dead on mobile, because it was never supported on iOS devices (including iPod, iPhone, and iPad), and the last version of Flash f...

Creator Weekly: YouTube Community, Instagram Insights, Twitch Clips

It’s been a long week, hasn’t it? I’ll leave it at that. Good news, no TikTok updates this week! There are updates for YouTube, Bluesky, Threads, Instagram and more. 📨 Subscribe to get Creator Weekly by email.  Top news and updates this week Tip: Get the most out of your Google One Premium subscription with advanced Workspace features. YouTube Communities are expanding to more channels, and the current channel Community tab is now the Posts tab. New in YouTube Analytics: Device Type card shows what type of devices (phone, computer, TV, tablet) your viewers use to watch your videos. YouTube updated their Harassment policy to ban content with simulations of dead individuals narrating their own death. YouTube shared tips on creating Shorts, the new Hype monetization and Community Guidelines updates over the past year. Twitch lets creators export vertical Clips to Instagram , in addition to Y...

Ten Years Ago This Week: Flagging and Reducing the Spread of Fake News on Facebook

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 January 25, 2015 . If you have used Facebook, or really any social media, you have seen how easily hoaxes, rumors and fake news spread. This isn't a new problem. As the old adage says , "A lie can run around the world while the truth is pulling on its boots". Watch the Short version below, or check out my full discussion from the January 26 Creator News live stream. On January 20, 2015 Facebook announced they had added an option to report false news, because "We’ve heard from people that they want to see fewer stories that are hoaxes, or misleading news." They noted that many people delete a post if their friends comment telling them it's a hoax. 2015 Facebook post reporting options include "it's a false news story" This update made several changes: ...

Creator Weekly: TikTok (sort of) Restored in the US, Instagram Reels & Profiles, YouTube Premium

This has been a very long week. TikTok and CapCut are mostly back in the US, at least for a few months. Instagram launched a slew of features positioning itself as a TikTok (and CapCut) alternative, and changed the layout of profile pages, making many creators unhappy. Many other platforms launched video feeds. There are new features for YouTube Premium subscribers, and new insights shared about the YouTube algorithm for creators. Plus there are updates for WordPress, Beehiiv, Substack and more. 📨 Subscribe to get Creator Weekly by email.. Top news and updates this week TikTok, CapCut and other ByteDance apps were disabled in the US, and then re-enabled after a 75 day reprieve. They still aren’t available in the Apple app store or Google Play Store. Instagram launched 3 minute Reels and a feed of Reels liked by your friends. Instagram announced Edits, a free mobile video editing app. It will be available in March. Bluesky, X, and Tumblr have new video feeds. YouTube shared how t...

Doing the ByteDance

If you are a TikTok user in the United States, this past week has been a roller coaster. To recap, in 2024 Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to divest ownership of TikTok in the US, or shut down. ByteDance fought this all the way to the Supreme Court, where the ban was upheld.  The law was scheduled to go into effect on January 19th. In the past week: ByteDance blocked US users on TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8 and its other apps. ByteDance restored access to US users. President Trump signed an Executive Order that says the law won't be enforced for 75 days. The Google Play Store and Apple App Store have not restored access to ByteDance apps. There are new video feeds on Instagram, Bluesky, X and other platforms.  Instagram expanded Reels length to 3 minutes. YouTube also recently made that change (but not in the past week). Instagram announced Edits, a CapCut Competitor that should be available in March. It's not clear what will happen, but the next few months should be inte...

10 Years Ago This Week: Google Glass Retirement, Twitch Music Library, Create a blog for your business

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015. These are three updates for the week ending January 18, 2015 , which are interesting in retrospect. Shutdown of the Google Glass Explorer Program On January 19, 2015 Google announced they will  stop selling Google Glass  to individual customers via its Glass Explorer program. Google Glass was never sold as a general consumer product. Google Glass Explorer Program Website January 17, 2015 via the Wayback Machine There were concerns about privacy and pushback against so-called "glassholes", although it's not clear how much of that contributed to the decision to shut the program down. It may have been that the expensive glasses just weren't ready for consumers. Google  continued to update Glass for Enterprise customers , including  integrating Google Meet video calling  in 2020. Google  stopped producing Glass  in March 20...