Weekly Update - October 14, 2017: YouTube Creators Hub, Android Video Calling, WordPress & Google

This week there were nice updates for video creators, bloggers, and more:

• The YouTube Creators Hub got a makeover, and has launched a series of Master Class videos
• YouTube has expanded their “harmful and dangerous content” policy to prohibit videos “that demonstrate how to convert firearms to make them fire more quickly”. Some in the firearms community aren’t happy with the change
• If you use WordPress for your blog or website, you can now easily insert Google Photos images and the new VCP Events Plugin lets you easily embed YouTube live streams + Google+ comments on your site.
• Google is making video calling from the Phone, Contacts, and Messages apps easier on Android phones. If your carrier supports ViLTE (e.g. T-Mobile), no app is required, otherwise you will need to install Google Duo.
• Local Guides are getting new badges on Google Maps
• Medium has opened its Partner Program to everyone. They call it “the internet’s first open paywall”. You can make your articles members-only. Non-members can access 3 member-only stories per month with a free Medium account. (learn more)

There are also tips and updates for YouTube, Google+, webmasters, bloggers, business owners, movie watchers and much more.

Northern California Wine Country Fire Relief
I hate that every week there has been a new crisis or disaster. But here we are. The fires in Sonoma and Napa Counties in California is almost Silicon Valley’s backyard, so it’s good to see tech companies stepping up.

• Project Fi customers: Northern California Disaster Relief service credit
• Google: Supporting those affected by the California fires
• NorCal Fires crisis map
• Facebook Crisis Response: The Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County, The Atlas Fire in Napa and Solano Counties, Partrick Fire, The Southern LNU Complex Fire,
• Facebook, Apple, Google Pledge Millions to Wine Country Fire Relief

Image: Detail from Autumnal Sunset on the Russian River (California) (1878) by William Keith (Public Domain)

Upcoming:

• 17 October: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout
• 19 October: Google Partners Academy on Air: User Acquisition: Maximizing apps via web
• 20 October: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout
• 26 October: Google Partners Academy on Air: Leveling Up Your UAC Campaigns: The right game events

YouTube and Video Creation

• Creator update: Redesign of the YouTube Creators Site and new Master Class videos (YouTube Creator blog)
• New for iPhones! Send YouTube videos through iMessage
• YouTube up in arms over gun mod videos, community fires back (the Next Web)
• Google testing automatically playing videos in YouTube app (Android Central)
• 13 sites for great free to cheap background music for your videos (Buffer)

Go Live

• Embed your YouTube live stream and Google+ comments on your Wordpress site with the VCP Events Plugin (Roland Takaoka)

Google+

• Google+ adds additional EXIF data to the web lightbox image view (Leo Deegan)
• Find your first Google+ post (and get an archive of all your posts) using Google Takeout (Brian Slesinsky)
• Why your Google+ Community posts may be disappearing (John Skeats)

Other social media

• Medium opens Partner Program to all (Ev Williams, Medium)
• Twitter developing new rules around: unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence (@Jack)
• The Real Reason Twitter Restricted Rose McGowan's Account Instead Of Just Deleting One Tweet (Buzzfeed)
• Corporations Have Utterly Failed to Protect Speech (Motherboard)
• People at Facebook Don’t Know How Facebook Works (Gizmodo)
• A cartoon Mark Zuckerberg toured hurricane-struck Puerto Rico in virtual reality (The Verge)
• LinkedIn is finally selling autoplay video ads (Recode)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• WordPress now lets you easily insert Google Photos images (Wordpress)
• Learn Google Photos with Top Contributor expert Chris Guld (Michael Daniels) 
• Google confirms photo uploads from the original Pixels are grandfathered for life (Android Police)
• Hands-on with Motion Photos: Google's version of Apple's Live Photos (Android Police)

Google for businesses

• Introducing new badges for Local Guides on Google Maps (Local Guides Connect)
• U.S. Local Business Owners: Google will create a free poster with a nice review blurb
• Markets with home service ads: Service-area businesses are coming back to the local results (Search Engine Land)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• What would you like to learn in a Google Webmaster Q&A video? (Google Webmaster Central)
• Embed your YouTube live stream and Google+ comments on your Wordpress site with the VCP Events Plugin (Roland Takaoka)
• WordPress now lets you easily insert Google Photos images (Wordpress)

AdSense and advertising

• If you recently installed AdBlock Plus from the Chrome store, it might be counterfeit (AdBlock Plus)
• Ad Groups say Google shouldn’t play judge and jury for “annoying” ads (AdAge)
• The new AdWords experience is now available to everyone (Inside Adwords)
• Google Partners Academy on Air: Universal App Campaigns: Deep dive and best practices (Google Partners)

Hangouts and Messaging

• Google making video calling easier on Android phones via Duo or ViLTE (Google Blog)
• Share the new selfie stickers in Allo and Gboard (Google Blog)
• Hangouts 22.0.171704195 APK Download by Google LLC (APKMirror)
• Introducing Cortana in Skype—Microsoft’s intelligent assistant comes to your chat window (Microsoft)

Made by Google, Android, Project Fi

• Google is nerfing all Home Minis because mine spied on everything I said 24/7 (Android Police)
• How Google built the Pixel 2 Camera: physics + art = great photos (Nat and Friends)
• Productivity
• Movies Anywhere is a single library for your movies from Google Play, Amazon, iTunes and Vudu (Google Blog)
• Google Launches Pixelbook Help Forum (Chrome Unboxed)
• How to Change Google Assistant to a Male Voice (Lifehacker)
• Now on iOS: Get paid to share your opinion (Google Blog)

Privacy and Security

• Equifax website hacked again, this time to redirect to fake Flash update (Ars Technica)

More around the web

• Facebook, Tesla and other tech giants are giving aid to Puerto Rico in the form of VR, ‘internet balloons’ and batteries (Recode)
• Windows Phone is now officially dead: A sad tale of what might have been (Ars Technica)
• Google finds that Russia did, after all, use its platforms to interfere with 2016 election (9to5Google)
• Facebook apologizes for allowing Russian ads to interfere with 2016 campaign (Ars Technica)
• How Kaspersky AV reportedly was caught helping Russian hackers steal NSA secrets (Ars Technica)
• Two months ago, the internet tried to banish Nazis. No one knows if it worked (The Verge)
• Target teams up with Google to take on Amazon this holiday season (The Daily Dot)
• Google’s 2017 environmental report (Google Blog)
• Who works in America’s newsrooms? (The Keyword)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links