March has come in like a lion, with a torrent of updates for YouTube, Hangouts and more.
- You can now watch a replay of the YouTube Live chat along with the live stream archive. The one limitation: you lose the chat replay if the video archive is trimmed.
- Super Chat purchases during YouTube Live streams can trigger real world events. Perfect if you want your fans to flash your lights.
- You can now location tag your YouTube videos when you live stream or upload a video on your mobile device. Discover videos by filtering search results by location or by clicking a location tag. Location tagging and search are currently only available on mobile devices.
- YouTube Creator Studio, Analytics and Dashboard are getting a major redesign. YouTube Studio Beta is available to all creators and is now the default experience for some users. You can still switch back to Creator Studio Classic, but if you do, be sure to send feedback to let YouTube know what’s missing.
- YouTube Stories (formerly Reels) are now available to more Creators and are getting a few improvements, such as the ability for viewers to subscribe to your channel from a Story. Stories use new real-time, on-device mobile video segmentation technology that let you add fun backdrops to your Story videos.
- The YouTube Creator Community shut down on February 28. YouTube is pointing people to the YouTube Support Product Forum to get help from experts and contributors. They also note they are expanding support for creators across the Community Tabs on the YouTube Help Channel and YouTube Creator Academy Channel.
- The new Hangouts Chat is in the process of rolling out to all G Suite accounts. The new Hangouts lets you meet in “Groups” and “Rooms”, and it includes 25 bots to help improve team productivity. If you are a Hangouts user with a G Suite account, you’ll be glad to know Chat is compatible with Classic Hangouts and contacts.
- The Google Clips smart camera that was announced last October is now available for purchase in the US. It uses on-device machine learning to record great facial expressions and moments from the people and pets that are important to you, and turn them into short clips. The idea is that you can capture special moments without having to fuss with your phone or other camera. However, initial reviews suggest that the new camera may not be worth the price, even for users with cute children and photogenic pets.
- Finally, I was on the H&M Show to talk about Google Brand Accounts for YouTube channels and Google+ Pages. Watch the replay. If you are interested, be sure to check out my Brand Account tutorials.
Image: “Miniskirts were in style then, but not the best for a snowy, windy night. 16 inches of snow slows the frenetic pace of Manhattan.” NOAA National Weather Service collection, 10 February 1969. (Public Domain)
Upcoming
- 4 March: Deadline for Google+ Post theme of the week. Theme: #thankful
- 6 March: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout
- 8 March: AdWords Academy on Air: The importance of mobile performance
- 9 March: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout
YouTube and Video Creation
- YouTube Studio Beta is now the default experience for some users (YouTube)
- YouTube Stories (formerly Reels) are now available to more Creators, and have new features (YouTube)
- New real-time, on-device mobile video segmentation technology with machine learning behind YouTube Stories (Research at Google)
- All YouTube MCN's affected by March 1st YouTube policy enforcement (@MCNfreedom)
- Webinar: Brand Accounts for Google+ Pages and YouTube channels on the H&M Show
- Manage your watch and search history in the YouTube Android app (video)
- A Researcher Just Found A 9,000-Video Network Of YouTube Conspiracy-Related Videos (Buzzfeed)
- YouTube outlines how Logan Paul’s channel will be handled going forward (Polygon)
Go Live
- New YouTube Live features: Super Chat triggers real world events, live chat replay, auto-captions, location sharing and more (YouTube blog)
- Hangouts Toolbox is working again (Hangout Toolbox)
- RIP Facebook Live: As subsidies end, so does publisher participation (Columbia Journalism Review)
Google+
- Find active Google+ photography themes in the Find a Photo Theme community (Heidi Anne Morris)
- Webinar: Brand Accounts for Google+ Pages and YouTube channels on the H&M Show
Other social media
- Snapchat’s redesign was meant for your friends, and celebrities aren’t your friends, says CEO Evan Spiegel (Recode)
- Vero, the new kid in town (Leanne Osborne)
- What Is Vero, and How Do You Delete It? (Digital Trends)
- News Feed FYI: Ending the Explore Feed Test (Facebook Newsroom)
- Facebook has decided that separating publishers into their own News Feed is a bad idea (Recode)
- Facebook’s vaguely worded face recognition “announcement” coincided with a legal setback (Fast Company)
- This Spicy Drama About Facebook CPMs Has People Like "Wahh?" And "Whoaaa" (Buzzfeed)
- When Facebook wants to clear things up, it turns to ... Twitter (Recode)
- How Trump Conquered Facebook Without Russian Ads (Wired)
- Twitter launches Bookmarks, a private way to save tweets (TechCrunch)
- Twitter CEO wants to study platform’s “health,” but is he ignoring the cancer? (Ars Technica)
- Twitter is wondering whether Twitter is bad for society — and Jack Dorsey is starting new research to find out (Recode)
Google Photos and Mobile Photography
- The Google Clips Camera is available in the US today (Google Blog)
- Google Clips review: a smart camera that doesn’t make the grade (The Verge)
Google for businesses
- The top Local SEO communities are on Google+ (BrightLocal)
- Google Maps adds mall directory search & browse in local panel (Search Engine Land)
Bloggers and Webmasters
- Google Chrome: Flash Usage Declines from 80% in 2014 to Under 8% Today (Bleeping Computer)
- Google Domains: an easy way to get online (Google Blog)
- More reasons to get started with Google Optimize (Google Analytics)
- Richer Google Analytics User Management (Google Analytics)
AdSense and advertising
- Have Google automatically place ads on your AMP pages with AdSense AMP Auto Ads (AdSense)
Hangouts and Messaging
- Hangouts Chat now available for G Suite accounts (Google Blog)
- Google Vault support for Hangouts Chat (G Suite Updates)
- Android Messages adds RCS support for dual SIM phones (Android Police)
- Collaborate securely with anyone in Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Teams blog)
- Teams, Microsoft’s Slack competitor, is about to become a whole lot more competitive (Ars Technica)
- Quickly find shared content in a Skype chat (Skype blog)
- Skype now optimized for Android devices running 4.0.3 to 5.1 (Skype blog)
Made by Google, Android, Project Fi
- In case you missed it: Android announcements at Mobile World Congress (Google Blog)
- New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100 (Ars Technica)
- Google is collecting pain points and feedback about Pixel settings and configuration on Reddit (The Verge)
Productivity
- New "multifaceted featured snippets" better answer your questions in the Google Search results (Google Blog)
- Google Maps silently rolls out plus codes, an interesting addressing system (Geospatial World)
- Share a link to a PDF version of your Google Docs or Sheets file - no conversion required! (Google Docs)
- Coming soon: automatic room suggestions in Google Calendar (G Suite Updates)
Privacy and Security
- 23,000 HTTPS certificates axed after CEO emails private keys (Ars Technica)
- Insights about the first three years of the Right To Be Forgotten requests at Google (Elie Bursztein)
- Updating our “right to be forgotten” Transparency Report (Google Blogs)
More around the web
- What Is the Perfect Color Worth? (New York Times)
- Take a 360 degree ride in a Waymo self driving car. (Waymo)
- How a society gala was used to sell young-blood transfusions to baby boomers desperate to cheat death (STAT)
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