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Weekly Update - October 21, 2017: Google Calendar Makeover, Google Photos Pet Face Recognition, Advanced Account Security

This week’s updates should be especially interesting to folks interested in account security and abuse prevention. But that’s not all:
  • Google Calendar for web (finally) has a new look and features. This is Calendar’s first redesign since 2011! New features include the ability to add rich formatting and hyperlinks to your Calendar invite, and the ability to manage multiple calendars side by side in “Day” view. If you want the new look, you can opt in now!
  • Google Photos face recognition can now recognize your cat or dog. That’s especially nice if you want to create an album, movie or photo book featuring your pet.
  • October is National Cyber Security Awareness month, and Google is celebrating with some new features. The new Advanced Protection Program provides extra account security for those most at risk of attack, such as journalists, political workers, celebrities, folks seeking safety from an abusive relationship. And Google Account Security Checkup now has personalized advice - review your account’s security today!
  • Twitter has pledged to make the platform “safer”, and has published a timeline of upcoming changes to Twitter policy. The changes begin next week, and will roll out gradually through the end of the year. You have until mid-December to post tweets condoning or glorifying violence, so get Tweeting! Kidding aside, the big question is how the updated policies will be enforced. 
  • YouTube posted an update on their work to fight violent extremism online. Over 83 percent of the videos YouTube removed for violent extremism in the last month were taken down before receiving a human flag.
There are also updates and tips for YouTubers, Plussers, webmasters, businesses, and much more.

Image: Cat and dog, photo © Nevit Dilmen. It’s licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Upcoming:

  • 25 October: AdSense on Air: 5 tips to get your site optimized for the winter holidays
  • 26 October: Google Partners Academy on Air: Leveling Up Your UAC Campaigns: The right game events
  • 2 November: Google Partners Academy on Air: Mobile Formats: Set Your Advertising up for Success

YouTube and Video Creation

  • An update on YouTube's work to fight violent extremism online (YouTube Blog)
  • Stream YouTube TV using your voice on Google Home (Google Blog)
  • Adam Mosseri: Facebook is trying to get better at ranking video - "which by the way we’re not great at" (Matt Navarra )
  • AVA: a video dataset for teaching computers to understand human actions (Research at Google)

Go Live

  • TwitchCon 2017 update: Twitch now provides a roadmap to Partnership and more (Twitch blog)

Google+

  • Google+ v9.23 adds app shortcuts for quickly starting new posts on Android 7.1 Nougat or above (Android Police)
  • Are you a Local Business owner having trouble getting on Google+? You aren’t alone (Tim Capper)

Other social media

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

Google for businesses

Bloggers and Webmasters

AdSense and advertising

Made by Google, Android, Project Fi

Productivity

Privacy and Security

More around the web

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links

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