Week in Review - March 26, 2016: Google Photos, Gmail, Google+

This week Google Photos launched auto-created albums and the option to add maps, locations and text to your albums. Google also made the Nik Collection of professional Photoshop plugins free. Google+ updated Android and iOS apps. Gmail rolled out new security features.

Plus there are tips and updates for video creators, webmasters, live broadcasters, and much much more.

Contact your loved ones in Belgium and Turkey

• Free phone calls to Belgium and Turkey via Hangouts, Hangouts Dialer and Google Voice
• AT&T And Verizon Offer Free Calls And Texts To Belgium Following Terror Attack [Update: Sprint And T-Mobile Too] (Android Police)

Image: Detail from "Still life of fruit and flowers with animals" by David de Koninck (late 17th c) (Public Domain)

Google+

• Update G+ iOS app 5.4: filter notifications, inline comments on posts, 2 columns on the iPad and more! (Luke Wroblewski)
• Update G+ Android app 7.5: retry sending failed posts, bug fixes, improvements (Luke Wroblewski)
• Tip The Google+ Mentions tab lets you see all the posts and comments + mentioning you on a single page (Rupert Wood)
• Tip Using Google+ Collections to split your posts by topics or interests is a must if you want to reach more people (Robert Wallis)

YouTube and video creators

• Update YouTube App Update Brings New Multitasking Features To iPad Users (Tubefilter)
• Article Yes YouTube video URLs are ugly, but they won't run out any time soon (Tom Scott)
• New Real time face capture and reenactment - you can't believe what you see on video! (Matthias Niessner)
• Tip 3 tips to help you be less nervous on camera (Video Creators)
• Tip Create a killer channel trailer to get YouTube subscribers (Video Creators)

Live Streaming

• Article Facebook Live lets you broadcast "where your audience is" (Fortune)
• New New official Periscope subreddit /r/periscopes for broadcast “curators” (Periscope blog)

Google Photos

• New Google Photos introduces auto-created albums, plus add a map or text to existing albums (Google Photos)
• Update Google Photos Now Exports Slow Motion Video At Correct Speed (Android Police)
• New The Google Nik Collection of pro desktop photo editing plugins is now free! (Google Nik Collection)
• New New official German Google Photos help forum (Google Deutschland)

Small Business

• Tip Business owners: do you own your business's Google listing? (Local Search Forum)
• Tip Subscribe to the official Google Small Business YouTube channel for tips and information about your business on Google

Blogger and Webmasters

• Tip Google Q&A with Andrey Lipattsev (Google) and SEO experts (WebPromo.Expert)
• Tip Now we know: Here are Google’s top 3 search ranking factors: Links, Content, RankBrain (Search Engine Land)
• Tip Micro-Moments for Publishers: Reach your users in their moments of intent (Inside AdSense Blog)
• Tip Dear SEOs: Please stop spamming Google Maps! (Joy Hawkins @ Search Engine Land)
• Update Google test? More images shown in search snippets (with Authorship speculation) (Search Engine Journal)
• Tip Mmmmm, data! Stone Temple Consulting has all their SEO and social media studies on one page (Stone Temple Consulting)

AdSense and AdMob

• Tip AdMob: Watch our new ‘Zen of Monetization’ video series to learn how to make money from your app (Inside AdMob)
• Article Less than 1% of users are keeping the entire mobile game industry afloat (The Next Web)

Productivity

• Update Google Drive for Android gets instant editing, more sort options (Google Apps Updates blog)
• Update Gmail update: More Encryption, More Notifications, More Email Security (Google Security Blog)
• New Chrome's app launcher is being retired on Windows, Mac and Linux (Chromium blog)
• Tip Keep your Android device malware free by only allowing app installation from the Google Play Store (John Skeats)
• Tip How to get back stories to read in Google Now (Matt Cutts)
• Tip Track your life in Google Analytics - Fitbit data and more (data runs deep)
• Tip Get Spring Break on the books with the Travel Planner template in Sheets. (Google Docs) 
• Update Google Bumps Chromecast App To v1.14 With Promised 'Google Cast' Rebrand And Better Support For Some Cast-Enabled Devices (Android Police)
• New Android Pay coming to the UK (Official Android blog)

Message apps (no Hangouts update this week)

• New Facebook Messenger’s hidden basketball game (The Next Web)
• Update Spring is in the air with new Skype Mojis and emoticons (Skype Blog)
• Update 7 new WhatsApp Features you need to check out (MakeUseOf)

And more...

• Microsoft Had to Suspend Its AI Chatbot (Tay) After It Veered Into White Supremacy (Kari Paul @ Motherboard)
• Learning from Tay’s introduction: "we cannot fully predict all possible human interactive misuses without learning from mistakes” (Official Microsoft Blog)
• How to Make a Twitter Bot That Isn't Racist (Sarah Jeong @ Motherboard)
• Google Data Center 360° Tour (Google Cloud Platform)
• How 17 lines of code took down Silicon Valley’s hottest startups (Ken Mazaika)
• Unfiltered.news: news from around the world - see what’s been less reported in your location (Yonatan Zunger) 
• If Anyone Can Find Bruce Wayne’s Batcave, It’s Google. Wanna See It On Street-View? (The Mary Sue)
• Akilah’s “Afrocentric life” doodle wins Doodle 4 Google 2016 (Official Google Blog)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links