Weekly Update - January 28, 2017: Google+, Google Voice, YouTube

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

Upcoming

• 31 January: YouTube Super Chat launches to everyone
• 2 February: #AskAdSense office hours
• 28 February: YouTube Fan Funding retired
• 25 April: Most Hangouts video call apps will be retired

YouTube and Video Creation

• New! Use the YouTube Creator Studio app to add a custom thumbnail on your phone (YouTube Creators)
• How to appeal when your YouTube channel is terminated (The Lady from UNCLE)
• Customize your YouTube channel layout (YouTube Help)
• Facebook starting to use video percent completion as a ranking factor (Facebook Newsroom blog)

Go Live

• Periscope adds multi-window support to the Android app (Android Police)
• Updates to Periscope App on iOS - including adding people to groups if they are not on Periscope (Krishna De)
• Instagram’s Live Stories feature for instant streaming rolls out worldwide (The Next Web)
• Updates to Cheering: Pin Top Cheer + More Settings (Twitch Blog)
• Your chat has been upgraded with Followers-Only Mode. (Twitch Blog)
• 10 Tips for Creative Live Streamers on Twitch (or anywhere) (Twitch blog)

Google+

• Google+ introduces "Your Influence" - stats for everyone! (Daniel Reynaud)
• Google+ Classic Events are now available in the new Google+ (Luke Wroblewski)
• Removing support for Google+ Brand Pages from the Google My Business dashboard (Google My Business community)
• Why did Google+’s Classic UI have to be retired? (Carter Gibson)
• Case study: Google+ goes completely responsive (Google Developers)
• Answers to frequently asked questions about the new Google+ 
• Find people in your Google+ Circles in Google Contacts
• Where to find Hangouts after the retirement of Classic Google+
• New Google+ Posting Cheat Sheet (Daniel Börresen​)
• How not to get banned from a Google+ community (Robert Wallis)

Other social media

• What was your first tweet?
• Twitter combines trends, Moments, search under the new Explore tab (Twitter blog)
• Now there’s a better way to prevent Facebook account takeovers (Ars Technica)
• Facebook is bringing Snapchat-like Stories to its main mobile app (The Verge)
• Continuing Our Updates to Trending (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facebook ends its effort to personalize Trending Topics (The Verge)
• Facebook has hired former Xiaomi and Google exec Hugo Barra as its new virtual reality chief (Recode)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• Add photo captions in the Google Maps Android app (Whiskey Schulze)

Google for businesses

• Google My Business updates business listing photo management (Mike Blumenthal)
• Google Business Pages New Photo Layout & Manage Photos (Online Ownership)
• Removing support for Google+ Brand Pages from the Google My Business dashboard (Google My Business community)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Blogger tip: insert an image shared on Google+ or Hangouts into a blog post (my original blog post)
• Tumblr gets photo filters and stickers, like every other app (The Verge)
• What events caused mass migration to HTTPS? (StackExchange)
• Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (24 January)
• Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (27 January)
• Protect your website, blog, or forum from user-generated spam (Google Webmasters)

AdSense and advertising

• How Adsense and AdWords fought bad ads, sites and scammers in 2016 (AdSense Blog)
• Ads Keep Footing the Bill for Google (Bloomberg)

Hangouts and Messaging

• A new era for Google Voice: passionate users + Google engineers who answered the call (Alex Wiesen)
• Google Voice apps get a major update: improved interface, group and photo MMS and more (Google Blog)
• Hangouts 16 for Android: Easier to find the right contacts quickly (Android Police)
• Hangouts 14.0 for iOS: Chat in video calls (App store) 
• Where to find Hangouts after the retirement of Classic Google+
• WhatsApp, Signal, and dangerously ignorant journalism (TechCrunch)
• Allo has a new chat bot called Lucky, as in I'm feeling Lucky. Lucky replies with gifs (Derek Ross)

Nexus, Android, Project Fi

• Android Instant Apps, announced at Google I/O last year, starts initial testing (Android Police)
• Google announces Android Wear 2.0 developer preview 5 with new developer updates and iOS support, but no new firmware (Android Police)
• Nexus 5X Owners Say Device Boot-Looping Kills Phones; Getting Runaround From LG (Consumerist)
• Samsung Explains the Details Behind the Galaxy Note 7’s Fiery End (MIT Technology Review)

Productivity

• New to the Google Docs and Sheets mobile apps: Drag and drop text in Docs, insert borders in Sheets and more. (G suite Updates blog)
• Google Maps now indicates destination parking difficulty in 25 US metro areas (Google Blog)
• Contacts: Major Changes to Contacts Preview (Scott Greenstone)
• Lost in Translation no more with Word Lens in Japanese (Google Asia blog)
• Chrome 56: HTML5 on and Flash off by default (Google Developers blog)
• A new generation of Chromebooks, designed for millions of students and educators (Google Blog)
• Mossberg: What’s up with Firefox, the browser that time forgot? (The Verge)
• What’s New On The Yahoo Homepage (Official Yahoo blog)

Privacy and Security

• Firefox, Chrome start calling HTTP connections insecure (Ars Technica)
• Gmail will block .js file attachments starting February 13, 2017 (G Suite UPdatesP
• Everyone - but especially managers of high profile accounts - should have 2-factor sign-in enabled on all accounts (Ars Technica)
• Single Point of Failure: The (fictional) day Google stopped checking passwords (Tom Scott)

More around the web

• Meet Vincent Connare, typographic engineer at Microsoft, and the designer of Comic Sans
• The Secret Agenda of a Facebook Quiz (New York Times)
• 2016 Ig Nobel Peace Prize lecture: Detecting pseudo-profound bullshit (Improbable Research)
• Meet the robots making Amazon even faster (CNET News)
• Alphabet earns $5.3 billion in profits for Q4 2016, ‘Other Bets’ losses are shrinking (Android Authority)
• Uber has hired two significant Google veterans (Recode)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links