- YouTube wooed advertisers at its Brandcast NewFronts event, announcing four new YouTube Originals shows and touting last year’s successes. There are also new advertising opportunities, with more music and originals in “Google Preferred” and TV advertising options.
- AdSense has changed the way it counts impressions - instead of “served impressions”, counted when the ad is requested on the server, it’s now counting “downloaded impressions”, counted when the ad downloads for the viewer. Publishers may see reported impressions decrease, and click through rate increase.
- There were several Google Assistant updates this week, presumably setting the stage for more announcements at next week’s Google I/O developer conference. Google Assistant for Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) got several new features, including Actions and Smart Suggestions. Google announced that every major smart device brand in the US can be controlled using Google Assistant. And you can now buy movie tickets by talking to your Google Home.
- App developers can now register a .app top level domain from Google to create a website to keep users up to date and act as a landing page. What’s unusual is that secure HTTPS is required to connect to .app websites. Why do that? “Because .app will be the first TLD with enforced security made available for general registration, it’s helping move the web to an HTTPS-everywhere future in a big way.”
- Lenovo is now selling the Mirage Solo, the first Daydream standalone VR headset and Mirage Camera, a point-and-shoot VR180 camera with YouTube live streaming.
- Facebook’s F8 Developer conference was last week, and there were a slew of announcements of new features for Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook itself. Some of the highlights:
- “Groups” are becoming a more central part of the Facebook experience
- A new Facebook dating feature, designed to match you up with people who aren’t already your “friends”
- Facebook is using artificial intelligence to automatically and quickly remove “bad” and inappropriate content
- Facebook will be building a “Clear History” tool so that you can remove the link between your profile and third party websites and apps
- Facebook Messenger is getting a new design to make it simpler and faster
- Group video calling is coming to Instagram and Whatsapp
- Share Spotify music in Facebook and Instagram stories
- Third parties can now create and share AR camera effects in Instagram
- Instagram’s ‘Explore’ section is getting a makeover
Image: Woven Fabric in Yucatan, Mexicon by Brian Snelson on Flickr (CC BY 2.0 license)
Upcoming
- 8-10 May: Google I/O
- 12 May Google Drive for Mac/PC shut down,
- 12 May: Google Photos Desktop Backup tool shut down
- 15 May: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout
- 16 May: Storify shutting down
- 18 May: Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout
Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp updates from F8 (and related news)
- Roundups
- F8 2018: Sharing to Stories, AR Camera Effects, Oculus Go and More Highlights from Day 1 (Facebook Newsroom)
- F8 2018: Open AI Frameworks, New AR/VR Advancements, and Other Highlights from Day 2 (Facebook Newsroom)
- Day 2 of F8 2018: Developer News Roundup: Computer Vision and AI (Facebook Developers)
- Getting Feedback on New Tools to Protect People’s Privacy (Facebook Newsroom)
- Facebook building a “simple way to clear your cookies and history” (Ars Technica)
- Facebook will soon bring 3D photos to the news feed (TechCrunch)
- Facebook’s Crisis Response now lets people share first-person accounts from disaster zones (TechCrunch)
- Facebook is launching a new Groups tab and plug-in (TechCrunch)
- Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook Dating (Ars Technica)
- Facebook and Instagram Stories add Spotify integration (Daily Dot)
- Facebook is completely redesigning Messenger to make it simple again (The Verge)
- F8 2018: New Tools for Businesses and People to Deepen Connections in Messenger (Facebook Newsroom)
- F8 2018: Using Technology to Remove the Bad Stuff Before It’s Even Reported (Facebook Newsroom)
- Facebook shrinks fake news after warnings backfire (TechCrunch)
- Facebook is letting apps back in through the review process again (The Verge)
- Dogged by Facebook scandal, Cambridge Analytica closes its doors (The Next Web)
- An Update on Facebook Video Retention Metrics (Facebook Media blog)
- New Oculus Venues app organizes live VR events under one roof (TechCrunch)
- Instagram updates: Video chat, sharing to Stories from other apps, third party-designed camera effects, redesigned Explore with Topic channels. (Instagram Blog)
- Protecting the Instagram Community from Bullying Comments (Instagram Blog)
- Facebook’s AR camera effects platform comes to Instagram (TechCrunch)
- Facebook is scanning your Instagram photos to improve its AI (DailyDot)
YouTube and Video Creation
- New YouTube Originals (and more options for advertisers) (YouTube blog)
- New advertising opportunities on YouTube on TV screens and YouTube TV (YouTube blog)
- More Than 250 Creators Get Into Hot Water For Promoting Academic Essay-Writing Service EduBirdie (TubeFilter)
- YouTube music app gets a streamlined now playing screen (Engadget)
- Small business owners: check out the YouTube Playbook to learn how to start building a successful channel (Google Partners)
- An Update on Facebook Video Retention Metrics (Facebook Media blog)
- Sorry folks, Vine isn’t coming back anytime soon (The Next Web)
Go Live
- Add country-level geo-restrictions to your live streams on Twitter (Krishna De)
Google+
- Top Google+ #CreateConnections Tips from Lisa Watson: Using your hobbies and passions to inspire others through posts and collections
- Google+ Community management tip: pin a post with essential information (Rachel Bakker)
Other social media
- Ask Robert Wallis questions about social media and be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel
- A new Twitter experience on Windows (Twitter blog)
- Change your password for Twitter (and on any other site or service that uses the same password) (Twitter blog)
- Snapchat’s redesign isn’t working, as Snap delivers weak earnings and poor user growth (Recode)
- Reddit's designers and users aren't seeing eye-to-eye over site's new look (The Next Web)
Google Photos and Mobile Photography
VR
- Google open sources Seurat, a tool for reducing mobile VR complexity (TechCrunch)
- Introducing the first Daydream standalone VR headset and new ways to capture memories (Google Blog)
- F8 2018: Open AI Frameworks, New AR/VR Advancements, and Other Highlights from Day 2 (Facebook Newsroom)
- New Oculus Venues app organizes live VR events under one roof (TechCrunch)
Google for businesses
- Making Google My Business work for agency and platform partners (Google Blog)
- Small business owners: check out the YouTube Playbook to learn how to start building a successful channel (Google Partners)
Bloggers and Webmasters
- Format your website to send your recipes to the Google Assistant (Google Webmaster Central blog)
- How to set your Blogger account language and Blogger blog language (Kesava Krishnan)
- Introducing .app, a more secure home for apps on the web (Google Developers)
- See a site’s owner and request edit access in the new Google Sites (G Suite Updates)
- Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (May 1) (Google Webmasters)
- Wordpress.com updates their Domain Name search (Wordpress blog)
AdSense and advertising
- Updated impressions metrics for AdSense (AdSense blog)
- Google rolls out new policies for U.S. election ads (TechCrunch)
- Google accused of using GDPR to impose unfair terms on publishers (TechCrunch)
Hangouts and Messaging
- Amazon tells Signal’s creators to stop using anti-censorship tool (The Verge)
- Facebook is completely redesigning Messenger to make it simple again (The Verge)
- AR coming to the Messenger experience (Facebook Newsroom)
- Instagram getting group video chat (Instagram Blog)
- WhatsApp is getting stickers and group video calls (The Verge)
Made by Google, Android, Project Fi
- Get more done with the Google Assistant on Wear OS by Google (Google Blog)
- Buy movie tickets with just your voice using Google Assistant (Google Blog)
- Turning your house into a smart home with the Google Assistant (Google Blog)
Productivity
- Improving autoplay in Chrome - personalized prevention of annoying automatic audio (Google Blog)
- Introducing Google Maps Platform (Google Maps Platform)
- Try Google Pay (or get your friends to try Google Pay) and get rewarded - now available on the web! (Google Blog)
- Following Gmail’s makeover, Outlook rolls out new features focused on business users (TechCrunch)
- If you use Gmail, Google’s Tasks app just became indispensable (qz.com)
Privacy and Security
- Google Chrome users will encounter a full-page warning whenever visiting a website whose SSL certificate is not registered with a public certificate log (Gizmodo)
- Change your password for Twitter (and on any other site or service that uses the same password) (Twitter blog)
More around the web
- Work-from-home fashions (tyler feder)
Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links.
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Spam and personal attacks are not allowed. Any comment may be removed at my own discretion ~ Peggy