Weekly Update - May 26, 2018: Google Photos, GMB, GDPR

Monday is Memorial Day in the US, a day for remembering the people who died while serving in the US armed forces, and barbecuing. Start your holiday weekend with some nice updates and be glad the flood of GDPR-related privacy updates should be down to a trickle.

• You can now “give some love” by ❤️ing photos shared with you in Google Photos, and ⭐ your favorite photos to add them to a special “Favorites” album. 
• Google Lens got a bit smarter, with real-time search and smart text selection.
• This week YouTube mentioned they had been testing algorithmic sorting of the subscription feed, and they got an earful of (mostly negative) feedback. 
• Business owners are regularly targeted by companies claim to represent Google, promising high search result rankings or charging money for Google’s free services. This week Google took legal action against some of the scammers, and rolled out new tools for businesses, including a way to report scammy practices and policy violations, and a new Google My Business Partners program, to create a directory of trusted service providers.
• Unless you’ve been living under a rock - or never used an online service or signed up for an email list - you are aware that the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect yesterday, May 25th. Already there have been repercussions: some relatively small, like EU users no longer being able to use some US news sites, Instapaper, or their “smart” lightbulbs; and some big, like Facebook and Google being hit with $8.8 Billion in lawsuits as soon as the law went into effect.
• If you have questions or concerns about your privacy or how Google uses your data, check out Google’s Privacy Troubleshooter. 
• If you are an AdSense publisher or have a Blogger blog, read the information provided by Google about compliance. Or maybe just have a chuckle that your service or site isn’t in the GDPR Hall of Shame.

See below for links with more tips and updates for live streamers, webmasters, Plussers, AdSense Publishers, and more. 

Image: Detail from Flags on the Waldorf by Childe Hassam, 1916 (public domain)

Upcoming

• 29 May: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout
• 31 May: SlideShare Video Functionality no longer available on LinkedIn
• 1 June: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout 
• 1 June “Google Voice with Sprint” integration disabled
• June: Update to YouTube matching against known copyrighted content

YouTube and Video Creation

• YouTube Updates Newsflash for May 22 (Creator Insiders)
• How would you feel about algorithmic sorting of your YouTube subscription feed? (@TeamYouTube)
• YouTube Music starts rolling out (Google Play Music isn't changing) (YouTube Blog)
• YouTube Music finally gets it right (The Verge)
• ‘A fun adventure, not a business’: The Weather Channel stopped publishing video on Facebook (Digiday)
• Vevo To Shut Down Website, App In Order To “Remain Focused On Engaging The Biggest Audiences” [YouTube]” (Tubefilter)

Go Live

• Social livestreaming platform Caffeine launches monetization system built around digital items, not ads (Venture Beat)
• Royal Wedding 2018: Livestreaming to 11.2 million romantics (YouTube blog)
• True Cloud Backups with Streamlabs OBS (Streamlabs blog)

Google+

• Share your travel stories on Google+ (Google+)
• Set whether Google+ Community posts appear on your profile (Carolina Liu)
• #CreateConnections with Margaret Tompkins: how to spark participation and fun on Google+ with special interest themes (Google+ Collections Community)

Other social media

• Facebook: New Tools to Support Group Admins and Keep Communities Safe (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facing Facts: Facebook’s Fight Against Misinformation (Facebook Newsroom)
• Hard Questions: What’s Facebook’s Strategy for Stopping False News? (Facebook Newsroom)
• Q&A on Transparency for Electoral and Issue Ads (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facebook’s new two-factor authentication process no longer requires a phone number (The Verge)
• ‘A fun adventure, not a business’: The Weather Channel stopped publishing video on Facebook (Digiday)
• Instagram Introducing Mute: A New Way to Personalize Your Feed (Instagram)
• Instagram says ‘you’re all caught up’ in first time-well-spent feature (TechCrunch)
• Snapchat’s decline and the secret joy of internet ghost towns (The Verge)
• Armed with $150,000, Snapchat Launches Accelerator Program For Content Creators (Video Ink; Tubefilger)
• Trump blocking Twitter critics is unconstitutional, court decides (The Verge)
• Twitter is killing several of its TV apps, too (TechCrunch)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• Google Photos update: ❤️ the shared photos you love and ⭐ your favorites! (Google Photos)
• Google Lens updated with real-time search and smart text selection (9to5Google)

Google for businesses

• Google takes legal action against scammers targeting local small businesses and launches tools to report bad behavior (Google Blog)
• Why Setting your Service Area Radius Over 50 miles is Pointless (Online Ownership)
• Reporting Third Party Scammers / Agencies on Google My Business (Online Ownership)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Changes to embedded content on classic Google Sites (G Suite Updates blog)
• Google image publishing guidelines: add context for higher quality traffic to your site (Google Search Console)
• Designing the UI of Google Translate (Google Design)
• Hackers Find New Method of Installing Backdoored Plugins on WordPress Sites (BleepingComputer)

AdSense and advertising

• AdSense on Air: Discover Doubleclick for Publishers (AdSense)
• Faster, safer and better ad experiences for consumers (Inside AdWords)

Hangouts and Messaging

• Updates to Hangouts Meet home screen and screensaver on in-room displays (G Suite Updates blog)
• Just Launched! — Aha! + Google Hangouts Chat Integration (Aha Blog)
• Google Duo 34 enables fast and easy screen sharing, preps message ‘Reply’ [APK Insight (9to5Google)

Made by Google, Android, Project Fi

• Google Play Protect uses machine learning to keep Android devices safe (Google Security Blog)
• 22 international YouTubers, 15 countries, 4 days: Behind the scenes at #io18 (Google Blog)
• All the (Android) Things at Google I/O (Android Developers)

Productivity

• Manage your kid's Google account: Google Family Link now available in 38 countries, including 27 EU countries (Android Police)
• G Suite for Education available for homeschoolers (Google Blog)
• A new look for Google Play Movies & TV on your Roku device (Google Blog)
• Now on iOS: new vehicle icons to spice up your drive (Google Blog)
• G Suite Pro Tips: how to sync one spreadsheet to another in Google Sheets (Google Cloud)

Privacy and Security

• Google Privacy Troubleshooter
• Pardon the Interruption: It’s About Your Privacy (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facebook Introducing Tools to Help Developers and Businesses Protect People's Privacy (Facebook Developers)
• No one’s ready for GDPR (Sarah Jeong)
• GDPR: US news sites unavailable to EU users under new rules (BBC)
• Facebook and Google hit with $8.8 billion in lawsuits on day one of GDPR (The Verge)
• Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR (The Verge)
• Hackers infect 500,000 consumer routers all over the world with malware (Ars Technica)

More around the web

• Always take leaked "exclusive" information with a giant pinch of salt - and send feedback!
• Twitch and BBC have teamed up to live stream 500 episodes of Doctor Who (Twitch blog)
• Who Is Arthur Chu?: When Jeopardy ended, the real puzzles of online life began (Ars Technica)
• New York Times: Using AI to host better conversations (Google Blog)
• See what the world is searching for with the updated Google Trends
• A New Look Inside Theranos’ Dysfunctional Corporate Culture (Wired)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links