Peggy K's Creator News

Top updates this week: At long last, Google+ is on its own: Google+ Classic was retired , Events returned, and “Your Influence” - stats for everyone - launched . Meanwhile, Google My Business no longer supports Google+ Brand Pages .  Google Voice finally gets an update, after 5 years You can now add a custom thumbnail to your YouTube video on your phone using the Creator Studio app  Plus there are tips and updates for YouTubers, live streamers, Google Plussers, Bloggers, webmasters, Chrome and Firefox users, Hangouts hanger outers and much more. Image: Gung Hay Fat Choy! The image is a rooster (cc0) from Pixabay

Note: when consumer Google+ shuts down on April 2, 2019, the Google+ Photos from Posts album in Album Archive will be deleted. If you have photos in Google+ Photos from Posts, be sure to download a backup before April 2, 2019 .  Note: Album Archive will be shut down on July 19, 2023. At that time all old Hangouts images in Album Archive will also be deleted. Blogger will only have the option to insert images from your Google Photos or your blogs.  One of the advantages of using Blogger is that it's part of the Google ecosystem. You can easily insert any image uploaded through your Google account into a Blogger blog post, including images you have shared on Google+ or in a Hangouts chat. Blogger can access any image in your Google Album Archive , which includes all images uploaded to Google through Google Photos, Google+, Hangouts, Blogger, Google Drive and other Google services ( Learn more about Album Archive ).

My top updates this week: This week Google+ announced that the Classic web interface will be retired January 24th. They also announced some nice updates: Hide low quality comments, pan and zoom large images on the web, and an improved responsive design for a better screen layout. YouTube is rolling out mobile sharing and messaging - starting in Canada The transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration included transfer of the White House and Presidential social media accounts And if you use Blogger you should c heck out the recording of my free webinar with Michael Daniels: Blogger, Beyond Text Plus there are tips and updates for Google+, YouTube, Blogger, Google Docs, Google Search and more. Image: My Wife’s Lovers by Carl Kahler (1893) “Dubbed by Cat Magazine as "the world's greatest painting of cats".”

Sometimes you need to insert characters into your blog post that aren't available on your computer's keyboard.  You can use the Blogger "Insert special character" tool to insert arrows (↑→), mathematical symbols (⺟∫), accented (éü) or non-Latin characters (禁𓁗) and even emoji (🐦✋).

I wanted to try live streaming on my Pixel phone, but I don't have access to the YouTube Mobile live stream app , which is still only available to a limited group of Creators (you can watch YouTube mobile live streams here ). I decided to try a few of the most popular Android live streaming apps to see how well they work. What I was looking for: Easy to use interface Direct live streaming to YouTube High quality video Portrait or Landscape mode I've excluded apps like Livestream , which focus on their own live streaming community, and don't have any way to export the video file or stream to YouTube directly. The results were mixed. The easiest to use was Periscope , but that doesn't broadcast to YouTube directly and the recorded video is not high definition.  And I couldn't get InstaLively to stream at all. However, Live in Five (recommended by +Ileane Smith) is a promising option - it broadcasts directly to YouTube and seems pretty easy to use. It le

My top updates this week: YouTube introduces Super Chat fan payments in live chats and highlights creators “On the Rise” Google+ is using machine learning (RAISR) to significantly - but hopefully imperceptibly - reduce image size and bandwith Hangouts has streamlined group chat creation Plus more updates and tips for YouTube, Google+, webmasters, AdSense publishers, maps users and much more. Image: Garish (2007) By aussiegall from sydney, Australia (Garish) [ CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons

This week was the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where new computers, smart devices and other electronics were shown, from the silly to “ put that on my wish list ”.  The best Google-related updates: Coming Soon: Google Assistant on Android TV, Android Wear 2.0, and more New Chromebooks built from the ground up for Android apps And there were a few other non-CES updates that have sparked interesting discussions: Medium announced that they were moving away from “ad-driving publishing”, apparently leaving some of the platform’s publishers “in the dark”. Most apps for the old Hangouts video call platform will be retired in April, as Google shifts focus towards business and enterprise Plus tons of tips for YouTube, Google+, AdSense, Webmasters, Google Calendar, Google Maps and more.. Image: Impression, soleil levant by Claude Monet (1872) Public Domain

Happy New Year readers! I know this is posted a day late, but the upates are through the end of 2016. I've posted my yearly reviews of the different Google products I follow, so if you want an overview of the year, that's the place to start: 2016 in Review: YouTube for Creators and Live Streamers - creator benefits, building community, better communication (video) 2016 in Review: Google+  - Creators, Collections and Communities 2016 in Review:  Blogger  - updated dashboard with more good things to come 2016 in Review: AdSense - updated account interface, better communication, new ad fformats 2016 in Review: Hangouts (yes, Hangouts) - moving toward business The big themes: better communication from the different Google support teams (YouTube, AdSense),  re-designed interfaces (Google+, AdSense, Blogger, YouTube), benefits for Creators (YouTube and Google+) and finally, products finding the own way after Google+'s pivot (YouTube, Blogger, Hangouts, and yes, Go