Weekly Update - April 22, 2017: YouTube Partner Program, G+ Metrics in G Suite, Updated Google Earth

This week’s big updates:

• There is a new application process for the YouTube Partner Program
• Update on YouTube Restricted Mode: why your content may be restricted - and a new way to provide feedback!
• Google+ gets its first G Suite-only update: track Google+ adoption at your organization with new usage metrics
• The updated Google Earth lets you voyage the world
• Also this week was the Facebook F8 Developer Conference so there are a bunch of FB updates, with Messenger, AR, VR and some unusual interfaces dominating the news.

Plus tips and updates for YouTubers, Google Plussers, live streamers, webmasters, AdSense publishers, business owners and much more.

Happy Earth Day!

• US National Parks are free this weekend
• Earth Day 2017 on Google+ - My Planet My Part 
• Google: Happy Earth Day World! 
• Walk, Climb, and Swim with Wildlife in Google Earth
• Flickr Earth Day Gallery
• Facebook: Helping People Support Earth Day and Our Planet (

Image: Western Hemisphere of the Earth (Public Domain). Happy Earth Day!

Upcoming

• 25 April: Most Hangouts video call apps will be retired
• 27 April: #AskAdSense office hours
• 2 May: YouTube Annotations editor retired
• 3 May: AdSense Wordpress Plugin Retired
• 22 May: Carrier SMS removed from Google Hangouts
• 23 May: Google announcing the latest Analytics, DoubleClick and Ads innovations
• 26 June: Google Talk retired, replaced by Hangouts

YouTube and Video Creation

• New application process for the YouTube Partner Program (YouTube)
• YouTube Restricted Mode update: why your content may be restricted - and a new way to provide feedback! (YouTube Creators)
• Introducing our first class of Creators for Change fellows (YouTube)
• Are you subscribed to the Creator Insider channel? You should be! (Tom Leung)
• Yahoo introduces Cabana by Tumblr: hang out, watch YouTube with friends (Yahoo blog)
• Facebook is offering publishers money to create produced video (again) (Recode)
• Google Tests Suggested Clip Videos In Search Results (SEO Roundtable)

Go Live

• The new Twitch Affiliate Program allows non-Partnered live streamers to earn some $$ (Twitch blog)
• Jake taught us "How to Not be Sad." Now his smiling face can act as a routine reminder. The :jakepeter: emoji is now available on YouTube. (Christopher Schmidt)
• Animal Adventure Park became the second most live-viewed channel in the history of YouTube in 66 days (YouTube)
• A Man Broadcast a Killing on Facebook. Is That Facebook’s Fault? (Slate)
• Facebook Streams a Murder, and Must Now Face Itself (Wired)
• Social business and live stream news: April 16th edition (Krishna De)

Google+

• G Suite admins: track Google+ adoption at your organization with new usage metrics (G Suite Updates)
• Google+ Community Management Best Practices: Enforcing Community Guidelines (John Chvatal)

Other social media

• Pinterest is killing off its ‘Like’ button and wants you to know it’s different from Facebook and Instagram (Recode)
• Instagram: Introducing New Ways to Organize Your Saved Posts (Instagram Blog0
• Instagram's offline mode for Android is official (Android Police)
• People are Forming Instagram 'Pods' to Try and Beat the Big Bad Algorithm (PetaPixel)
• Twitter has had a dislike button for months and you didn’t notice (Mashable)
• Pulse Of The Planet, Flatlined: Why Twitter Can't Grow (Exponents)

Facebook F8 Developer Conference

• F8 2017: Camera Effects Platform and More From Day One (Facebook Newsroom)
• F8 2017: AI, Building 8, Connectivity and More From Day 2 (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facebook Spaces: A New Way To Connect With Friends In VR (Facebook Newsroom)
• Mark Zuckerberg, in his own words, on why AR is Facebook’s next big platform bet (Recode)
• Facebook’s AI-powered camera can blur photo backgrounds in real time (The Verge)
• Facebook’s Sci-Fi Plan for Typing with Your Mind and Hearing with Your Skin (Technology Review)
• Facebook is working on a way to let you type with your brain (The Verge)
• Facebook Just Handed Out Thousands of 360 Cameras. We’ve Got a Review (Wired)
• Messenger Brings People Together All Over the World (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facebook Messenger has 1.2 billion users and is now twice the size of Instagram (Recode)
• Facebook is baking in Spotify and Apple Music right into Messenger (The Next Web)
• Facebook Analytics Adds Pages Support and Launches Automated Insights (Facebook Developers)
• Facebook is deleting a bunch of spam accounts in its effort to fight fake news (Recode)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• How the PhotoScan app removes glare from scans of your photo prints (Google Research)
• Google’s PhotoScan just got easier to use with receipts and other documents (ANdroid Authority)
• Scan your printed photos in just one tap (Google Blog)
• Add your own music to your Google Photos Movie (from the YouTube Audio Library, or anywhere) (blog post, video)
• Making Flickr Fully Responsive (Flickr blog)
• SnapChat and Facebook bring Augmented Reality to your smartphone (Snapchat, Wired, Facebook)

Google for businesses

• Have spammers added their images to your business listing? (Joy Hawkins @ Local Search Forum)
• GMB Now Allows All Dashboard Accounts to Access 18 months of Data (MIke Blumenthal)
• Google GMB Upgrades Bulk Listing Insights and Provides High Traffic Store Data (Mike Blumenthal)
• The Largest Review Spam Network Ever Or... Who is Shazedur Rahman and why should you care? (Mike Blumenthal)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• How we fought webspam - Webspam Report 2016 (Google Webmasters)
• Google Analytics redesigned: a new Home and Discover (Google Analytics Blog)
• Transfer new Google Sites in and out of G Suite with Team Drives (Steegle)
• Customize your site with logos, matching colors, and more in the new Google Sites (G Suite Updates)
• Automate Google Analytics reporting in Google Sheets (Johannes Mehlem)
• You Probably Shouldn’t Forge a Judge’s Signature to Solve Your SEO Problems (Motherboard)

AdSense and advertising

• AdSense for Content best practices: ad placement and avoiding policy violations (Inside AdSense)
• Winning with rewarded Video: Two app success stories(Inside AdMob)
• Google reaches $22.5 million AdWords lawsuit settlement (Silicon Beat)

Hangouts and Messaging

• Google Voice gets improved spam call filtering (Google Voice) 
• Hangouts 19 for Android (APK Mirror)
• Hangouts 15 for iOS (App Store)

Nexus, Android, Project Fi

• Android just got incredibly good at helping you manage your apps (The Verge)
• Android Pay + PayPal = ♥️ (Google blog)
• Moto 360 (2nd Gen), Huawei Watch and Others to Receive Android Wear 2.0 by End of April, Late May (Droid Life)

Productivity

• Google Home now supports up to 6 users (Google Blog)
• Voyage the world with the new Google Earth (Google Blog)
• Google now gives you style "inspiration" images, when perusing fashion product images (Google Blog)
• How Chrome keeps you safe online (Google Blog)
• Chrome 58 improves Custom Tabs and Progressive Web Apps, breaks sites using certain HTTPS certificates, and more [APK Download] (Android Police)
• Introducing Boards, Notes, and Highlights (Feedly)
• Access The Yahoo Mail App Now with Any Email Address (Yahoo Blog)
• Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do (TechCrunch)

Privacy and Security

• Surveillance Self Defence (EFF)
• Did you know Google lets you view - and delete - the data they have associated with you? (Lauren Weinstein)
• Chrome, Firefox, and Opera users beware: This isn’t the apple.com you want (ars technica)
• We Can Calm Down: Microsoft Already Patched Most of the Shadow Brokers Exploits (Motherboard)
• New password guidelines say everything we thought about passwords is wrong (Venture Beat)

More around the web

• Why shoelaces become untied (Boing Boing)
• Goodbye to Pretty Little Liars, the show that defined smartphone horror (The Verge)
• Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria (The Atlantic)
• Important news from Lo (& Nat) (Nat & Lo)
• San Francisco's Power Outage Poses a Fresh Challenge for City Officials (WIRED)
• Google says it is on track to definitively prove it has a quantum computer in a few months’ time (Technology Review)
• Teaching Machines to Draw (Google Research blog)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links