Weekly Update - May 27, 2017: Photos, Family, Advertising

The dust has settled from Google I/O and we’re starting to get the announced new features - at least for Google Photos. Here are my top updates this week:

• Google Photos now lets you Archive images from your Photos screen, and you can personalize Google Photos by labeling your own face.
• Google Family Groups let you easily share with your family & household: Google Photos, Calendar, Keep, in addition to YouTube TV and Google Play
• We got a peek at some improvements Google+ is working on over the coming months
• This week was the Google Marketing Next conference, where they announced updates to “Ads, Analytics and Doubleclick”. The focus was on machine learning and mobile - the same themes (not surprisingly) of Google I/O two weeks ago - applied to marketing. Watch the keynote and read an overview of the announcements.
• Hangouts no longer supports SMS - except for Project Fi and Google Voice.

Plus there are updates and tips for AdSense Publishers, YouTubers, live streamers, webmasters, Android O beta testers and much more!

Image: Detail from Poppies by John Singer Sargent (1886).

Monday, May 29th is Memorial Day, a day to remember the men and women who died while serving in the US armed forces. Poppies are a symbol of remembrance. Learn about National Poppy Day on the American Legion website, and see the Memorial Day 2017 virtual poppy wall.

Upcoming

• 30 May: Google Webmasters Office Hours Hangout
• 1 June: #AskAdSense office hours
• 2 June: Google Webmasters Office Hours Hangout
• June: YouTube turning off the Translation Marketplace
• 26 June: Google Talk retired, replaced by Hangouts
• 29 June: Google Partners livestream: Digital Transformation: Leveraging Mobile for Branding
• 12 July: YouTube NextUp applications launch for Rio de Janiero (Brazil), Jakarta (Indonesia), Manila (Philippines), Mexico City (Mexico)
• 31 July: CineSpace short film competition using NASA imagery deadline

YouTube and Video Creation

• How to use the YouTube Analytics Audience Retention report to understand what keeps your viewers watching (YouTube Help)
• YouTube TV now supports AirPlay, so you can use it with your Apple TV (The Verge)
• Detect faces, record camera stream and share video seamlessly on the mobile Web ( François Beaufort)
• Facebook Will Reportedly Pay Up To $250,000 Per Episode For Long-Form Content (Tubefilter)
• Facebook Now Pins Active Videos While You Scroll Through Your News Feed On Desktop (Tubefilter)

Go Live

• More Ways To Connect with Friends in Facebook Live (Krishna De, Facebook)
• Microsoft's relatively unknown gaming live streaming platform Mixer gets a new name and app (Polygon)
• Twitch update: New playback speeds and video player settings (Twitch)

Google+

• Google+ has some nice updates in the works! (Leo Deegan)
• Using Google+ Pages with Collections to build your Community (John Chvatal)

Other social media

• Revealed: Facebook's internal rulebook on sex, terrorism and violence (The Guardian)
• Facebook’s Community Standards: How and Where We Draw the Line (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facebook’s Internal Moderator Policies Should Have Been Published Years Ago (Ben Sullivan @ motherboard)
• Update on Trending (Facebook)
• You won’t believe why Facebook will block this headline (Ars Technica)
• Facebook Instant Articles SDK Extension now Supports Google AMP, soon Apple News (Facebook)
• New in Instagram Direct: Support for Landscape and Portrait, Plus Links (Instagram)
• Introducing Location and Hashtag Stories on Instagram Explore (Instagram)
• Medium now offers a “smarter reading experience” (Medium)
• Pinterest Integrates Autoplay Video Ads Into Home Feeds, Search Results (Tubefilter)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• New! Google Photos lets you Archive images
• Personalize Google Photos by labeling your face and your contacts will get suggestions for sharing photos with you 
• Google Family Groups let you easily share with your family & household: Google Photos, Calendar, Keep, in addition to YouTube TV and Google Play (Google Blog)
• They’re here! Create Google Photos books in the iOS and Android app (Google Photos)
• Why Google Is Suddenly Obsessed With Your Photos (Victor Luckerson @ The Ringer)

Google for businesses

• Update on Google's SMB Website Builder (Mike Blumenthal)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Make sure articles and guest posts on your site don't include spammy links (Google Webmasters)
• Localization Essentials - a new free course from Google, to learn how to make websites and brands globally accessible (Google Blog)
• Solving the enterprise attribution challenge (Google Analytics Blog)
• Improving the publication experience in the new Google Sites (G Suite Updates)

AdSense and advertising

• Are you new to AdSense? Have questions? Check out the FAQ! (Inside AdSense blog)
• Google Ads, Analytics and Doubleclick keynote (Google Analytics on YouTube)
• Powering ads and analytics with machine learning (Google Blog)
• Powering ads and analytics innovations with machine learning (Not the same as the previous post) (Inside AdWords blog)
• The AMP ad format loads ads faster on mobile AMP pages (Inside AdWords Blog)
• Making marketing easier with new tools for productivity (Inside AdWords Blog)
• Introducing Ads Data Hub: Next generation insights and reporting (Inside AdWords Blog)
• Google Optimize and Google Surveys 360 Join Forces with AdWords (Inside AdWords Blog)
• Google Following Your Offline Credit Card Spending To Tell Advertisers If Their Ads Work (Consumerist)
• Google Partners 'Discover' Series - Digital Transformation: Programmatic Advertising Solutions (Google Partners on YouTube)
• Firebase Analytics Gets New Features and a Familiar New Name (Google Analytics blog)

Hangouts and Messaging

• Project Fi users: Use Hangouts to send and receive SMS messages - check your settings! (Project Fi Forum)
• Hangouts now only supports SMS for Project Fi and Google Voice 
• Google Voice updated to 5.2, adds new widgets and call screening [APK Download] (Android Police)

Nexus, Android, Project Fi

• Android Wear 2.0 rolling out to Moto 360 2nd-generation watches - get it now (Android Police)
• Android O: All the best features in Google's latest OS update (The Next Web)
• Android Pay says "Привет" to Russia (Google Blog)
• Project Fi users: Use Hangouts to send and receive SMS messages - check your settings! (Project Fi Forum)

Productivity

• When will Google Street View update your area? (Mike Blumenthal)
• A year of Google and Apple Maps ( Justin O’Beirne)
• Easily see your personal search results in Google Search (Search Engine Roundtable)
• Quick Access in Google Drive now available on the web (G Suite Updates)
• Let’s jam—Jamboard is now available (Google Blog)
• Google Family Groups let you easily share with your family & household: Google Photos, Calendar, Keep, in addition to YouTube TV and Google Play (Google Blog)

Privacy and Security

• Inside Google's Fight To Keep The US Government Out Of Gmail Inboxes (Forbes)
• Russian Hackers Are Using Google's Own Infrastructure to Hack Gmail Users (motherboard)

More around the web

• How Your Data is Stored, or, The Laws of the Imaginary Greeks (Yonatan Zunger)
• AlphaGo Is Back to Battle Mere Humans—and It’s Smarter Than Ever (Wired)
• What Deep Blue Tells Us About AI in 2017 (backchannel)
• AI in the newsroom: What’s happening and what’s next? (Google Blog)
• Humans Accidentally Made a Space Cocoon For Ourselves Out of Radio Waves (Becky Ferreira @ motherboard)
• How Fonts Are Fueling the Culture Wars (Ben Hersch @ Backchannel)
• The MP3 Is About As 'Dead' As Pepe The Frog (Techdirt)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links