Skip to main content

Weekly Update - September 8, 2018: Chrome B-Day, Google+ Aspire, Blog Compass

This week we celebrate Chrome’s 10th birthday (and Google’s 20th), and there are updates for Bloggers, Plussers, YouTubers and more.
  • The official Google+ Collections community is now the Google+ Aspire Community. It’s new focus is to provide resources to learn how to better use Google+ features (profiles, images, hashtags and more), and creating and curating great content. It’s also a place to get feedback on your posts from other Plussers. Kicking it off is discussion on how to create recipe posts. Be sure to join the community to participate (https://plus.google.com/communities/104797282868426074024), and if you have content you think should be highlighted, you can submit it.
  •  Blog Compass by Google is a new Android app designed to help you manage your Blogger or Wordpress blog. You can get stats, moderate comments, and the app will suggest trending topic ideas for your next post. This beta version of the app is only available in India. 
  • The new Google Search Console has graduated from “beta”. Some features from “classic” Search Console are not available in the new version yet, but “the most common use cases are supported”. Google is encouraging users to use the new version, as old reports will eventually be removed if there is an equivalent feature in the new version. If you haven’t tried the new Search Console yet, be sure to check out the migration guide that compares the tools and reports in the two versions. 
  • Chrome turned 10 years old this week, and Google looked at changes over the past decade, and introduced an updated look and some new features, including an improved password manager and more helpful Omnibox address bar.
  • Dark theme is finally available in the YouTube Android app, and YouTube wants your questions and feedback. If you want to let YouTube know what you think, head over to Twitter or the official YouTube help forum.
  • If you need data for your next project, or just enjoy playing with numbers, check out Google’s new Dataset Search (https://toolbox.google.com/datasetsearch) that helps you find freely available datasets on the web. There is data for the environmental and social sciences, government data and data provided by news organizations, such as ProPublica. That includes data for weather, housing, education, health, businesses and much more. 
Plus there are more tips and updates for live streamers, webmasters, video callers and more. Read on for details.

Image: Go to chrome://dino for a special birthday version of the Chrome “no internet” dinosaur game.

Upcoming

YouTube and Video Creation

Go Live

Google+

  • The Google+ Aspire Community is the official place to learn about creating and curating great content on Google+ (Google+ Aspire community)

Other social media

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

Bloggers and Webmasters

  • Blog Compass by Google for Android lets you get stats, moderate comments and get trending topic ideas for your WordPress or Blogger blog (India only) (Google India)
  • The new Google Search Console is graduating from beta with new reports and tools (Google Webmasters Blog)
  • Google Webmasters Office Hours Hangout on Air (September 4) (Google Webmasters) 
  • Google Webmasters Office Hours Hangout on Air (September 7) (Google Webmasters)

AdSense and advertising

Hangouts and Messaging

Made by Google, Android, Project Fi

Productivity

  • Google Dataset Search is a search engine for “scientists, data journalists, data geeks, or anyone else” to locate online data that is freely available for use (Google Blog, Nature)

Chrome

Privacy and Security

More around the web


Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Spam and personal attacks are not allowed. Any comment may be removed at my own discretion ~ Peggy