- My heart goes out to the YouTube employees affected by this week’s shooting at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. It looks like they are staying #YouTubeStrong.There is a fair amount known about the shooter, at least her online activity, but I don’t think she should be given additional attention.
- Hangouts Meet, the video conferencing platform for G Suite, just added the ability to call US and Canadian phone numbers for free to bring audio-only participants into a video call.
- If you are a business owner confused by the separation of Google My Business from Google+, be sure to check out the new official FAQ for more information.
- Facebook is scrambling to recover from new revelations of privacy issues this week. It turns out up to 87 million users - nearly twice the number originally thought - may have have their data improperly obtained and used by Cambridge Analytica. But that’s a drop in the bucket. It turns out that most of Facebook’s 2.2 billion members have probably had their personal personal data scraped by "malicious actors" using scripts that took advantage of the option to look up people by email or phone number. This has apparently been known for years, and Facebook doesn’t appear to have done anything to try to prevent this from happening.
- It also turns out that Facebook saved copies of videos that users recorded, but chose not to post. To users they appeared to have been deleted. Plus CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top Facebook executives have been able to deleted their Messenger messages from recipients’ inboxes for years.
- Facebook has been announcing changes that should mitigate some of these issues: there are new restrictions on data access on both Facebook and Instagram, they are working to make the terms clearer, requiring greater transparency around political ads, and managers of Pages with a large number of followers will need to be verified, Plus they are implementing an “unsend” option for all users in Messenger, so we can all be like Zuck. Too little too late? Time will tell.
- Last Sunday was April Fool’s day. It seemed like there weren’t nearly as many “pranks” by tech companies than in past years, perhaps because it was the Easter holiday weekend, or perhaps more likely because Google, Facebook and other tech companies have been under fire for their business practices, and it would be pretty tone deaf to promote an elaborate silly joke. That said, there was some fun:
- You could play “Where’s Waldo” in Google Maps, and even earn a special Local Guides badge for finding Waldo and friends.
- Google Files Go has a bad joke detector
- Logitech Revolutionizes Business Communication with the Introduction of Business Speak (BS) Detection Software
- Snapchat mocked Facebook and its Russian political ads controversy with a special April Fool’s day filter
- Adobe Illustrator will order the food you doodle
- KAYAK offers a virtual vacation
- Snopes, Time and Android Police have round-ups of other April Fools Day jokes.
Image: The Rainbow, by Robert Delaunay, 1913 (Public Domain)
Upcoming
- 9-13 April: Google+ #CommunityExperts: learn about Community Moderation tools with Margaret Tompkins
- 11 April: H&M Show: Learn about Google Voice with Dencil Smith
- mid-April: updated YouTube firearms policy goes into effect
- 23 April: Google+ #CreateConnections with Lisa Watson
- 25 April: AdSense on Air: Track your AdSense Revenue
YouTube and Video Creation
- YouTube introduces new TrueView for Reach ad format skippable bumper ads (Inside AdWords)
- H&M Show: Learn about VidIQ with Rob Wilson
Go Live
- Skype for Content Creators lets NDI–enabled software place and record calls for live streaming or video recording (Skype Blog)
Google+
- What's the difference between Google My Business and using a Google+ Page for your business? (Google My Business)
- Tips for thriving on Google+ from Google+ Create Members (Google+)
Other social media
- Snapchat introduces group video chat (Snapchat)
- Snapchat is a “new kind of camera” (Snapchat)
- Twitter postpones platform change that would cut off third-party apps (The Verge)
- Launching today: new collaborative study to diminish abuse on Twitter (Susan Benesch and J. Nathan Matias)
- Facebook wants your feedback on their updated data policy and terms of service (Facebook Newsroom)
- Facebook says Cambridge Analytica data collection affected nearly twice as many users as previously thought (The Verge)
- Facebook: Most Users May Have Had Public Data 'Scraped' (US News)
- Facebook retracted Zuckerberg’s messages from recipients’ inboxes (TechCrunch)
- Facebook Messenger will add an ‘unsend’ feature after secretly deleting Zuckerberg’s messages (The Verge)
- Facebook Messenger’s “Unsend” Feature is What Happens when you Scramble (WIRED)
- Facebook knew for years scammers were harvesting users' details with phone number searches. Did nothing (Graham Cluley)
- Facebook Says It’s Sorry for Quietly Keeping All of Your Never-Posted Videos, and That It Will Delete Them (NY Mag)
- An Update on Our Plans to Restrict Data Access on Facebook (Facebook Newsroom)
- Facebook will stop sharing as much of your personal data with people outside of Facebook (ReCode)
- Facebook Isn’t Telling the Whole Story About Its Decision to Stop Partnering With Data Brokers (EFF)
- CEO says Facebook will impose new EU privacy rules “everywhere” (Ars Technica)
- Hard Questions: Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg on Protecting People’s Information (Facebook Newsroom)
- Authenticity Matters: The Russia-based Internet Research Agency Has No Place on Facebook (Facebook Newsroom)
- Facebook to verify major page owners (BBC)
- Making Ads and Pages More Transparent (Facebook Newsroom)
- Bulk Delete Apps and Website Logins on Facebook (Lifehacker)
- 3 tests show Facebook is determined to make Stories the default (TechCrunch)
- Instagram suddenly chokes off developers as Facebook chases privacy (TechCrunch)
- The Instagram Moodboard Community Is Having a Breakdown Over Polyvore Closing Down (The Daily Beast)
Google for businesses
- What's the difference between Google My Business and using a Google+ Page for your business? (Google My Business)
- Google My Business now lets you specify a list of services (Local Visibility System)
- Google Write a Review Link Generator - Free Chrome Extension (Get Five Stars)
Bloggers and Webmasters
- If your site is using a SSL/TLS certificate from Symantec that was issued before June 1, 2016, it will stop functioning in Chrome 66 (Google Webmasters)
- Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (April 3) (Google Webmasters)
- Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (April 6) (Google Webmasters)
AdSense and advertising
- Understanding the AdSense adult content policy (AdSense on YouTube)
- Sight, sound and scale: Introducing TrueView for reach (Inside AdWords blog)
Hangouts and Messaging
- Be a Google Voice beta tester to try out wi-fi calling directly from the Google Voice app (Google Voice)
- Call a US or Canadian phone number for free from a Hangouts Meet video call (G Suite Updates)
- Send 360-degree photos in Facebook Messenger (Facebook Newsroom)
Made by Google, Android, Project Fi
- Introducing new Android Excellence apps and games on Google Play (Android Developers)
- How to Pair Your Bluetooth Speaker With Google Home (Lifehacker)
Productivity
- Google Bans All Cryptocurrency Mining Extensions from Chrome Store (CCN)
- Search makes it easier to plan movie night (Google Blog)
- Stable Channel Update for Chrome OS (Chrome 65) (Chrome Releases)
Privacy and Security
- Secure your Google account: remove unneeded 3rd party apps with access to your YouTube, Drive, Google+, and account details
More around the web
- Earthquake early-warning system gave heads-up before 5.3 temblor hit L.A. area (LA Times)
- Meeting our match: Buying 100 percent renewable energy (Google Blog)
- The psychology behind false confessions (JSTOR Daily)
Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links
Peggy, I was just wondering if you've noticed anything about the Subscribe link in new Blogger templates. I notice yours still has the nice "Subscribe" button up beside "Search" in your header and sticky header.
ReplyDeleteLately when I try applying the 4 new Blogger themes to a new blog, none of them show the Subscribe option there. In the templates, the section for it is still there but there is no content. Is this an "updated feature" or am I just crazy?
Just wanted to run this by you since you seem unaffected.
In the "Subscribe" section of my Layout using the Notable Theme, I have two gadgets - Follow by Email and Subscription Links (enabled). The "Follow by Email" gadget you have to add using the "Add a Gadget" option. If you don't see Subscription Links there already, you can also add that as a Gadget.
DeleteScreenshot