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Showing posts from June, 2018

Weekly Update - June 30, 2018: Google Ads, Duplex Assistant, YouTube Monetization

The year is half overl, can you believe it? This week there are name changes, Easter eggs, happy (and unhappy) YouTubers and more this week. Google rebranded its services for advertisers and publishers. AdWords is now simply Google Ads , Doubleclick for Advertisers is combined with Google Analytics 360 Suite as the Google Marketing Platform, and Doubleclick for Publishers and Doubleclick Ad Exchange are now Google Ad Manager . AdSense, at least, is still just AdSense. It’s not just a name change. They also introduced Google Ads “Smart campaigns” to help small businesses to set up ad campaigns in minutes.  The new-ish Google contact hovercards are now in Hangouts on desktop at hangouts.google.com (thanks to Robert Wallis for spotting that!). These cards also appear in Gmail, Calendar, and Google+ for G Suite when you move your mouse over someone’s profile photo or name - pretty much everywhere except Google+ for consumers. The desktop version of Android Messages launched

Weekly Update - June 23, 2018: Android Messages, YouTube Monetization, Video Updates

This week is (mostly) about new video features: YouTube announced new monetization and sharing options, Instagram launched IGTV for longform vertical video, and Facebook added new Live features for quizzes, game shows and polls. And there are more nice updates for podcasters, music lovers, webmasters and more.  Big news for messaging this week - Android Messages is now available on the web. You can send and receive SMS and MMS messages on your desktop computer at messages.android.com by linking your phone. There are also a few other new features: Smart Reply, easily search for GIFs, link previews, and copy one time passwords with a single tap. VidCon - the big online video convention - is happening right now. There are separate tracks for creators, industry folks, and fans, panel discussions and presentations. And YouTube’s keynote address is usually a platform for new feature announcements. This year the focus was monetization and community.  New YouTube features include “Ch

Weekly Update - June 16, 2018: YouTube, VR180, #pride2018

Well there's so many things taking place That it's hard to keep up with it all Keep your eye on the ball And to make the right call When we're longing for fall On this evening in June ~  Evening in June , Van Morrison  Have you ever seen an ad that made you wonder, why the !@#$ am I seeing that? Google wants to help you more easily understand and control how ads are personalized for you. The revamped Google Account Ads Settings ( https://adssettings.google.com ). There you can turn off targeted ads or adjust your interests. As an aside, Google’s ad targeting is much better than Twitter’s, where I sometimes see ads targeted at locations thousands of miles from my actual location (I see truly local ads too, so Twitter “knows” where I am).  YouTube is rolling out automatic captions on live streams to channels with at least 10,000 subscribers. This is really a cool feature for your fans who might be hard of hearing, watch with the sound off, or who otherwi

Weekly Update - June 9, 2018: Hangouts, Project Fi, Google AI

There’s news inside and outside the Googleverse this week:updates to Hangouts Chat and Meet, Google laid out their principles for developing Artificial Intelligence, new Facebook Live features for gamers and lip syncers, and a look at the highlights of Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2018. And much more! Hangouts Meet video calling will be compatible with existing meeting room hardware, including Polycom and Cisco. Plus Microsoft Skype for Business users will be able to join a Meet video call directly from the Skype app. And if Hangouts Meet isn’t your thing, third parties will be able to create add-ons for Google Calendar to let join video calls for services like Webex, GoToMeeting, Vidyo and more, right from a Calendar Event. Hangouts Chat will (finally) be able to include people from outside of your G Suite organization in Chat. That will be available in the “coming months”. YouTube will be removing private Messages ( www.youtube.com/messages ) on July 9. They suggest two altern

Weekly Update - June 2, 2018: Project Fi, Hangouts Meet & More

There aren’t many updates this week. After the excitement of Google I/O and the mad rush to comply with the GDPR, June looks like it may be a quiet month. All G Suite domains are being migrated from Hangouts Video Calls to Hangouts Meet for new Google Calendar events. Hangouts Meet has an updated user interface, and some additional features for Education and Enterprise accounts , including video recording and up to 50 people in a meeting. The down side of the change for some folks is that it requires an updated Chrome browser or Firefox version 60 or higher on desktop. Older computers won’t be able to use Meet. Project Fi announced that it supports three new phones, the budget moto g6, and the high end LG G7 ThinQ and V35 ThinQ. That’s in addition to the moto x4, and Google’s phones: Pixel, Pixel2 and the older Nexus 5X, 6P, and 6. Google Photos turned three this week. No cake, just stored memories. If you need to get away, or have the urge to explore, AR tours are now available