Week in Review - January 9, 2016: YouTube, Google+, Blogger and more

This week's updates, tips and articles for YouTube, Google+, Google Photos, Bloggers, Webmasters and more. No major launches, so it's a great time to catch up: create a few Google+ Collections, review your social media accounts, update your Blog and YouTube channel, or take some new photos of your business.

Image: Skating in Central Park, by Alice Tait (1934) This image is a work of a Works Progress Administration employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 105).

Local Business on Google

• Tip: Do you know who owns your business’s YouTube channel and Page? Could you sign in if your current social media manager left? (Discussion of my post here - updated for 2016)
• Tip: Quality photos help your small business shine online. Check out this Google Small Business photography guide for tips and resources (Google Small Business)

Google+

• Update: Manage your Google+ activity: posts, comments, poll votes, +1s and more (Luke Wroblewski)
• Tip: How to reshare a Google+ Post into a Collection (Sooraj Wadhwa)
• Tip: Success with Google+ Collections: Eli Fennell​​ talks with Meloney Hall​​ on the Lights, Camera, HOA​​ show about Collections. (Lights, Camera, HOA)
• Tip: Do you want a lot of followers? Why you should be using Collections NOW! (Robert Wallis)

Google Photos

• Use Google Photos video search to easily find photos from an event

YouTube

• Contest: Beauty vloggers: you could win a trip to London and meet Rita Ora by entering the +RimmelLondonUS ​#LONDONLOOKCONTEST contest (YouTube Creators)
• Update; YouTube announces it will support HDR video (Mashable)
• Article: YouTube's CES Keynote: Four Reasons Why Digital Video Will Win the Decade (ReelSEO)
• Article: YouTube boss: 'Aim to be the next PewDiePie, not the next Tom Cruise' | Technology | The Guardian (The Guardian)
• Tip: Musicians: use collaborations and social media sharing to promote your YouTube channel and build your fan base (YouTube Creator Academy)
• Tip: Filmmakers and YouTube Creators: use Google Docs to manage your next movie-making collaboration (Google Docs blog)

Live streaming

• The Livestream Movi puts the power of a multi-camera setup in your pocket (The Verge via Bern Rexer)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Tip: January 12: Webmasters: have questions? At the Google Webmaster Central office hours hangout you can get answers (Google Webmasters)
• Tip: Google Manual Action Notices Explained (Tim Capper)
• Tip: Identify your Blogger blog's Google+ or Blogger Profile (Nitecruzr)
• Tip: Team Blog Recovery To Authors, With Cached Access (Nitecruzr)

Android, Nexus, Project Fi

• [UPDATE] January 2016 Project Fi Android security update rolling out to Nexus 5X and 6P (and soon to Nexus 6) (Project Fi Help Forum)
• People are talking - the most popular Android communication app downloads around the world

People and Technology

• Solitaire and Minesweeper aren't just addictive games - they helped Windows users learn to use a mouse (Mental Floss)
• Nat and Lo visit the Airbender team at Google, who are inventing new ways for people to interact with computers (Nat and Lo YouTube channel)
• Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10 reached their “end of life” on Tuesday (The Next Web)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links