Week in Review - July 30, 2016: Calls, Spaces, YT Gaming

This week Google launched Emergency Location Service for Android phones in Europe and Nexus phones got better spam call protection. There were updates to the Google Spaces and YouTube Gaming mobile apps.

Plus there are tips and updates for YouTubers, live streamers, bloggers, Maps navigators, Drive users and more!

Image: Summer Night by Elin Danielson-Gambogi (1894)

Upcoming:

• 1 August: Picasa Web Albums will be retired, find your images in Album Archive
• 10 August: Pokéfans: submit your Pokémon Collection to the Google+ #FeatureFriday contest

YouTube and Video Creation

• Tip YouTubers: Here's why your subscriber count is dropping (YouTube Help)
• Update Vimeo announces new stats tool with more viewership insights 
• Tip Best Practices for your Gaming channel (YouTube Creator Academy)
• How a video platform works from video on demand to live streaming - it's complicated! (Humanizing Tech)
• Update Facebook Frees Its VR Camera to Push 360 Video Everywhere (Wired)

Go Live

• Update YouTube Gaming v1.5 adds chat overlay to full-screen videos, landscape orientation, watch history, a new easter egg, and more (Android Police)
• New Share the best moments from any channel (Twitch blog)
• YouTube Releases Viewership Data for Political Convention Live Streams (VideoInk)

Google+ and Google Spaces

• New Google+ Create em Português (Carolina Liu)
• Update Google Spaces iOS update 1.0.4 (Luke Wroblewski)
• Update Google Spaces Android update 1.3 (Luke Wroblewski)

Other social media

• Twitter launches photo stickers for everyone (Twitter)
• Twitter updates their marketing “See what’s happening” (Twitter blog)
• Think Trolls Act Better Using Their 'Real Name'? Think Again. (Eli Fennell)
• Instagram to offer comment moderation tools (The Verge)
• Facebook sees 2 billion searches per day, but it’s attacking Twitter not Google (Tech Crunch)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• Tip 9 simple apps and tools for creating your own GIFs in minutes (Buffer blog)

Google for businesses

• Tip: Updated: How to create a direct link to your business page reviews. (Tim Capper)
• Tip: How to respond to bad reviews (Google Small Business)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Tip Should you move your News website from HTTP to HTTPS? (Google Webmasters)
• New Tumblr blogs to display ads, Partner Program in the works (Official Tumblr blog)

AdSense and Advertising

• Alphabet’s huge Q2 shows its ads business may not be so challenged after all (TechCrunch)

Hangouts and Mobile Messaging

• New Better group chat controls for Hangouts (Google Apps Updates blog)
• Messenger as a stand-alone app: this Is The Smartest Thing Facebook Ever Did (Backchannel)
• Update Open-source Wire messenger gets encrypted screen-sharing (The Next Web)
• Update WhatsApp isn't fully deleting its 'deleted' chats (The Verge)

Nexus, Android, Project Fi

• New Nexus phones get better spam call protection (Nexus)
• New Emergency Location Service in Android helps emergency services find you
• (Google Policy Europe)
• Tip Project Fi in Paris: My International Connectivity Dreams Come True (Thurrott)
• Tip How to Android - with the new official Tips and Tricks site (Android)

Productivity

• New Google Play Music Family Plan and Google Play Family Library - share what you love with those you love! (Google Blog)
• Update Google Maps gets a cleaner look (Google Maps blog)
• Update Now you can build multi-stop road trips on Google Maps for iOS (Google Maps blog)
• New Get Android Add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets (Google for Work blog)

Privacy and Security

• New Google enables HSTS so that going to its main domain will be encrypted by default. (Google Security blog)
• Tip How Google uses your data to make Map navigation better - while keeping your data safe (Google)

More around the web

• Can you recognize Dark Patterns - web user interfaces designed to trick you? (Ars Technica)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links