Peggy Ks Tips & Tricks

While a lot of the tech chatter this week was about Apple’s iPhone event, Google announced updates to Google+, YouTube Kids, Hangouts Meet and more. And there was bad news for Inbox users and folks concerned about copyright laws. Read on...
This week three controversial copyright-related proposals were approved by the European Parliament: Article 11, which requires “commercial platforms” to have a license to link to a news article; Article 12a, which prohibits posting your own photos or videos of sports matches; and Article 13, which requires large platforms to use copyright filters to examine everything uploaded for possible infringement. The details have not been fully worked out yet so the fight goes on. Google+ has made it easier to share a file from your Google Drive account. All you need to do is click the Drive icon when creating a post to access all your Drive folders and files. This feature is only available for Google+ Profiles, not Google+ Pages. If you have an Enterprise G…

This week we celebrate Chrome’s 10th birthday (and Google’s 20th), and there are updates for Bloggers, Plussers, YouTubers and more.
The official Google+ Collections community is now the Google+ Aspire Community. It’s new focus is to provide resources to learn how to better use Google+ features (profiles, images, hashtags and more), and creating and curating great content. It’s also a place to get feedback on your posts from other Plussers. Kicking it off is discussion on how to create recipe posts. Be sure to join the community to participate (https://plus.google.com/communities/104797282868426074024), and if you have content you think should be highlighted, you can submit it (https://goo.gl/SSJVco).Blog Compass by Google is a new Android app designed to help you manage your Blogger or Wordpress blog. You can get stats, moderate comments, and the app will suggest trending topic ideas for your next post. This beta version of the app is only available in India. The new Google Search …

This week was full of positive updates, including tools for YouTube creators to raise money for charities, YouTube app updates to improve your digital wellbeing, making content and Google services more accessible in India, Google Assistant is bilingual and Google One is rolling out to more countries.
Google announced the YouTube Giving initiative, which provides Creators with tools to support charitable giving to US non-profits. In addition to adding Donation Cards, YouTube Partners can now use Super Chat for Good for donations during their live streams and Premieres. And now select creators and non-profits can run Fundraisers with a Donate button on their channel, or team up with other channels for Community Fundraisers. Currently only Donation Cards and Super Chat for Good are broadly available to Creators.YouTube also posted desktop web release notes, with an overview of recent updates and bug fixes. Check it out on the YouTube Help Forum and give YouTube some positive feedback abo…

This week there are some nice updates, helpful tips, and good news for the asking for creators of all kinds.
Managing members for private domain-limited Google+ Communities is getting easier. If you have a private Community for your G Suite domain, you can now manage membership through Google Groups. Add someone to the Group and they will also be added to the Community. If someone is removed from the Google Group, they will also be removed from the Community. If you have a G Suite account, and want to use this feature, talk to your domain’s administrator to see if they will enable it for you.The new Google Search Console for webmasters is getting some new features, including a Links report, improved mobile usability report, and a new settings that makes it easier to manage your properties’ users and permissions. It’s also getting easier for owners of a property in Google Analytics to access data for that site in Search Console, with automatic verification.All channels in the YouTube…

Now in the heat of the dog days of summer, there aren’t many significant updates. Now is probably a good time to learn some new tricks, like how to use Google Data Studio or complete more YouTube Creator Studio courses. Or maybe take a trip to the beach?
Here’s what’s new this week:
Google Photos photo books are now available in Germany. And you can now add captions to your photo books (assuming you are in a country where they are available).A redesigned Google Voice app is available for iOS devices, with Google Calendar and Contacts-linked “Do Not Disturb” for G Suite users. This appears to be the related to the enterprise version of Google Voice for G Suite announced at Google Cloud Next.The new Gmail “confidential mode” is now available on mobile devices. This lets you set an expiration date and passcode for the messages you send. In the YouTube Android app you will be able to mention someone when you reply to their comment. This should “improve readability” and the person you me…

Lemon, cherry, apple, pumpkin, pecan - so many delicious flavors of pie!
This week Google officially introduced Android 9 Pie. There are improvements in navigation and notifications, and AI-powered features including Adaptive Battery, Adaptive Brightness, Smart Text Selection and App Actions. So far I’ve found it delicious.One of the themes at Google I/O this year was digital wellbeing - features integrated across Google products to help balance their time online with their time offline. Now if you have a Pixel phone with Android 9, you can preview the beta version of these features. It includes a dashboard to give you an overview of the time you spend on your device, app times to limit your use, and a “wind down” option that gets you ready for bedtime by putting your phone in do not disturb mode and fading the screen to grayscale. (Facebook and Instagram also offer tools to help you manage your time on those platforms).Controversial radio show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones…

This week there are updates and tips for Plussers, Business owners and managers, VR video watchers, along with tips for YouTubers, AdSense Publishers and more.
You can now embed a Google+ Stream from a Profile, Community, Community Category, Collection or search result on a Google Sites web page. I’m hoping this option will be available to other types of websites as well.If you own or manage a Brand Account for a YouTube channel or Google+ Page, you can now see the email addresses of other owners and managers.Google My Business launched Post Insights, which lets you see views, clicks and the percentage change for individual posts and all posts over the past week or month.Google announced several updates for the DayDream VR viewer, including the ability to watch YouTube videos with other people.Google Maps no longer shows the Earth as flat in 3D Globe mode.Google is reportedly working on a censored version of its search engine for China, and employees are in an uproar. And there are to…