Week in Review - January 16, 2016: Google+, VR, Blogger, and More

This week Google+ updated both the new desktop version and Android app, a Google account is now required for the Google Friend Connect app on your Blogger blog, Google appoints a VP of Virtual Reality, and AdSense offers tailored Optimization. Plus tips and updates for YouTube, Google+, Inbox, Google Maps, and more.

A thought: Monday in the Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday. In 1964 King pointed out that technology doesn't make us better people. We could do better then; we could do better now.

There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

- Martin Luther King's Nobel Lecture, delivered in the Auditorium of the University of Oslo at December 11, 1964

Image: HelpingHands.svg available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Google+

• Update Google+ Android app update: improved search, home stream, and more (Luke Wroblewski) 
• Update Google+ Web Preview update: pin a post, easier move to Collections, simpler Community invites (Luke Wroblewski)
• Tip How to pin a post to the top of a Google+ Collection (Sooraj Wadhwa)
• Tip Move an existing public post into a Collection (Sooraj Wadhwa)
• Tip Testing Friends+Me - a Google+-centered social media posting tool (Me, Eli Fennell)

Google Small Business

• Update Small businesses: edit your listing or suggest an update directly from the Google search results knowledge panel (Priya Chandra and Mike Blumenthal)

YouTube Creators

• Update Free open source Linux video editor OpenShot 2.0 beta is now available (Jonathan Thomas)
• Tip Translations for YouTube Creators: more ways to optimize your YouTube channel (Robert Wallis)
• Tip Plan out your video with storyboards - even if you can't draw (Vimeo)
• Article Robert Kyncl at CES: Why digital video will overtake TV by 2020 (ReelSEO)

Go Live

• New Twitter Weaves Periscope Into Its Social Feed - watch live without a Periscope account (TubeFilter)

360 images, videos and VR

• New 3D Sound for more immersive VR coming to Cardboard (Google Developers Blog, Google Cardboard)
• Update Google forming VR division with Clay Bavor the new VP of Virtual Reality (Re/Code)
• New Palm-sized “Luna” camera can capture 360-degree video for immersive VR playback (PSFK)
• New Space Shuttle Tour Cardboard for Android (Paolo Amoroso)
• New Google Street View visits Hamburg’s Miniatur Wunderland - also viewable with Cardboard (Google Maps blog)
• Article VR vs. AR: Oculus Rift Looks to Grab the Early Lead, but HoloLens Has the Long-Term Edge (Motley Fool)

Blogger

• Update Blogger update: Google Friend Connect now requires a Google login (Blogger Help Forum)
• Article A short history of Blogger (and Twitter) anti-impersonation policy (Motherboard)

AdSense

• New The new AdSense Optimization tab shows tailored tips for your site (Inside AdSense)
• Blogger blog owners: Do Not Ask "What Is Required For AdSense?" (Nitecruzr)

Messaging (non Hangouts)

• Article Facebook Messenger: Here’s to 2016 (Facebook Newsroom)
• New Skype introducing mobile group video calling (Skype)

Android, Nexus, Project Fi

• Promo Android Pay Tap 10 promo: free songs, free Chromecast! (Droid Life)
• Promo Great deals on the Nexus 5X and 6P in the Google Store (Google Store)
• Article It's time to ditch the big four carriers and go with Google's Project Fi (review) (Android Guys)

Productivity: Google Maps, Mail, Docs

• New Google Maps for Android tells you when to go (Google Maps)
• New Inbox by Gmail on the web now makes it easier to share memories with instant access to recent photos and attachments. (Inbox by Gmail)
• New It's now easier to organize your files in Google Drive on desktop (Google Drive blog)
• Tip Using Google Sheets for Dynamic Pricing of Limited Edition Wine (or anything in limited quantity) (Ted Juch)

And more...

• What Sean Penn Teaches Us About How Not to Chat With a Fugitive (The Intercept via Mike Blumenthal)
• This is what happens when you reply to scam email (James Veitch TED talk)
• Del.icio.us making a comeback? (Tech Crunch)
• 2016 Google Tracker: Everything Alphabet and Google is working on for the new year(Ars Technica)
• Alphabet drops the “Google” from Google X’s name, gets new logo (Ars Technica)
• Google I/O 2016 is only 18 weeks away and for the 10th anniversary it will return to Mountain View (Sundar Pichai)
• YouTube Creators interview President Obama live after the State of the Union (YouTube Spotlight and The White House)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links