Weekly Update - April 15, 2017: Google+, Google Photos, AutoDraw

Updates this week (nothing too major):

• Google+ Community managers: Apply to Community Vanguards to meet other community managers and learn more about running Communities! 
• Google Photos update: stabilize your video 
• Google AutoDraw turns your quick sketch into a nice drawing 
• Google Duo audio calling is now available to users worldwide

Staying secure?

• Burger King’s new ad forces Google Home to advertise the Whopper
• Studio71 YouTube Channels Hacked By ‘OurMine’, Including Roman Atwood, Lilly Singh, Logan Paul
• Spain Arrests Russian Thought to Be Kingpin of Computer Spam 
• NSA-leaking The Shadow Brokers published exploits targeting most versions of Windows 

Plus there are tons of tips for YouTube, Google+, AdSense, Blogger, webmasters, businesses and more.

🎸🕶🌞🎶 Watch the Coachella Music Festival live - for free! - this weekend on YouTube

Image: AutoDraw bunny

Upcoming

• 17 April: Google Spaces shuts down
• 20 April: Update your Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office
• 20 April: #AskAdSense office hours
• 25 April: Most Hangouts video call apps will be retired
• 2 May: YouTube Annotations editor retired
• 3 May: AdSense Wordpress Plugin Retired

YouTube and Video Creation

• Studio71 Channels Hacked By ‘OurMine’, Including Roman Atwood, Lilly Singh, Logan Paul (Tube Filter)
• Who is in charge of your business or organization's Google Brand Account, Google+ Page and YouTube channel? (Robert Wallis)
• YouTube Partners: Tips from AdSense for preventing invalid activity - skip ads on your own videos, don't ask for clicks and more (Inside AdSense)
• Show your appreciation: heart and pin comments posted on your YouTube videos (YouTube Help)
• PewDiePie vows to go ‘family friendly’ as he suffers major advertisement loss (he’s also got a weekly Twitch show) (Polygon)
• Dailymotion to relaunch in June with focus on professionally produced video programming (Marketing Land)
• Improvements to Facebook Video Metrics in Page Insights (Facebook blog)

Go Live

• Twitter now lets brands make their own ‘custom hearts’ for Periscope live videos (Tech Crunch)

Google+

• Last chance to save your content from Google Spaces
• Google+ Community managers: Apply to Community Vanguards to meet other community managers and learn more about running Communities! (Google+)
• Google+ Community Manager best practices: writing Community Guidelines (Paul Pavlinovich)
• Who is in charge of your business or organization's Google Brand Account, Google+ Page and YouTube channel? (Robert Wallis)
• The Moderators: a look at those who ensure social media sites are not taken over by bots, scammers and pornographers

Other social media

• With recent policy changes, it may be time to delete your LiveJournal (The Mary Sue)
• Introducing the New Instagram Direct (Instagram Blog)
• Instagram Stories is now more popular than the app it was designed to kill (The Verge)
• Introducing the Facebook for Journalists Certificate (Facebook Media blog)
• Facebook wants to teach the media how to use Facebook (The Next Web)
• How to avoid unwanted communications on social media (gizmodo)
• DMCA “safe harbor” up in the air for online sites that use moderators (Ars Technica)
• Mavrix v LiveJournal: a crash course on DMCA immunity (@rahaeli @ storify)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• Google Photos update: stabilize your video
• Spring flower photography tips from #teampixel (Google Blog)
• How to embed videos from Google Photos or Drive on your blog or website

Google for businesses

• The ultimate guide to fighting business listing spam on Google Maps (Joy Hawkins)
• Spam In, Garbage Out - Why Google's Recent Paper on Map Spam is Flawed (Mike Blumenthal)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Using photos without permission on your blog can cost you! (J Gracey Stinson)
• How to embed videos from Google Photos or Drive on your blog or website
• Google now lets you submit URLs for indexing straight from Search (The Next Web)

AdSense and advertising

• How AMP affects AdSense Publishers and AdWords Advertisers (John Brown at Search Engine Journal)
• YouTube Partners: Tips from AdSense for preventing invalid activity - skip ads on your own videos, don't ask for clicks and more (Inside AdSense)

Hangouts and Messaging

• Google Duo audio calling is now available to users worldwide (Ars Technica)
• How to Keep Your iMessages From Popping Up on Other Devices (Wired)

Nexus, Android, Project Fi

• Google may be sued over Nexus 6P early shutdown and bootloop issues (Android Police)
• G5, V20, and Nexus 5X phones added to LG bootloop defect class action (Ars Technica)

Productivity

• 10 ways to use Google apps and services to Brainstorm: Groups, Drive, Calendar, Sites, Hangouts, Google+ and more (G Suite Learning Center)
• Google AutoDraw turns your quick sketch into a nice drawing (Google Blog)
• High priority notifications in Inbox going live for some users (Android Police)
• Google now shows 'Similar Items' shopping links on select image searches (Android Police)
• A 'brand new' Google Earth will arrive April 18th (engadget)
• Google deprecates Octane JavaScript benchmark, because everyone is basically cheating (Ars Technica)

Privacy and Security

• NSA-leaking The Shadow Brokers published exploits targeting most versions of Windows

More around the web

• Burger King’s new ad forces Google Home to advertise the Whopper (The Verge)
• Google ruins the Assistant’s shopping list, turns it into a big Google Express ad (Ars Technica)
• Why Amazon's, Starbucks' and Apple's smartphone-based retail stores don't really work yet (Mike Elgan)
• Dear Microsoft: absolutely not. (Monica Byrne)
• Google's war on fake news goes global: Search results now tagged 'true' or 'false' (ZD Net)
• Spain Arrests Russian Thought to Be Kingpin of Computer Spam (New York Times)
• Ohio inmates used salvaged computers to commit credit card fraud from jail (The Next Web)
• 8-Year-Old Hero Steals Car to Buy McDonald's After Learning to Drive on YouTube (Gizmodo)
• How Google Book Search Got Lost (Backchannel)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links