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Weekly Update - October 27, 2018: YouTube, Maps, Lens

Happy almost-Halloween everyone! There are some treats for creators this week.
  • YouTube Premieres are now available to all Creators. Set a date and time for your uploaded video to “premiere” and a video watch page is created with comments and live chat both. Your fans can then watch the premiere of your video together while they chat. 
  • YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki posted her final update for 2018, with a plea to users that they "tell the world" how they will be impacted by Article 13 of the EU's new copyright legislation, and paints a dire picture about the possible outcome: it "could force platforms, like YouTube, to allow only content from a small number of large companies." She also gave an overview new features implemented over the past year, and announced the new "YouTube Learning" initiative to support high quality educational content. 
  • You can now follow businesses in Google Maps to see events, offers and other updates. Makes a lot of sense for businesses - now when they create a Post, potential customers are more likely to see those updates. 
  • Google will be discontinuing Android Nearby Notifications in December. These are notifications from physical beacons that push notifications to nearby devices, for example a schedule at a bus stop or guides at a museum. Why shut it down? Google noticed “a significant increase in locally irrelevant and spammy notifications that were leading to a poor user experience.”
  • There are new .new domains that are shortcuts to creating a new Google Doc, Sheet, Form, Slides or Site. Try doc.new, form.new, slide.new, deck.new, or site.new - or one of the alternatives.
  • Google Lens is now available in Google’s Image Search. Lens uses artificial intelligence to search for information related to a selected portion of the image. You could use it to find a shirt for sale that matches what a movie star is wearing, or learn more about landmarks, animals, plants or other objects in a photo. Google points out that this is another way for website owners for their content to appear in search, so make sure that you are following their image publishing guidelines. Lens in Images is live on the mobile web for people in the U.S. searching in English and will be available in more places and languages soon. 
  • At TwitchCon Twitch announced a bunch of new features that will be available over the coming months, including “Twitch Sings” live karaoke, "Squad Stream" that lets 4 creators stream in a single view, new extensions, plus new moderation and community tools. 
  • Reddit has announced a partnership with Patreon, that lets creators promote their Reddit Communities on their Patreon page, and promote their Patreon in their Reddit Communities. Patrons will be rewarded with special Reddit flair. 
  • Google+ has posted a brief FAQ about the sunsetting of Google+ in the Google+ Help Community. There still aren’t many details, but there is a promise of more information to come. 
Plus there are more tips and updates for Plussers looking for a new home, business owners, YouTubers, AdSense publishers and more. Read on for details.

Image: “Halloween” by Jamal Fanaian on Flickr. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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