Weekly Update - December 29, 2018: Winding down the year

No big round-up this week, as most of the tech world is on holiday, and I'm working on my end-of-2018 round up which I'll post on January 1st. There was a little bit of news this week:

• You can start the new year with a 30-day activity challenge in the Google Fit app. It starts January 1st, but you can sign up today.  Get Google Fit for your Android phone to get started.
• Google celebrated their Webmaster Product Experts. If you are a webmaster who enjoys sharing your expertise, check it out.  
• The camera on your phone is getting smarter. Google uses computer vision techniques and machine learning to power features like "Top Shot" on the Pixel 3 that saves and analyzes frames before and after your shutter press to capture just the right moment. And Google Lens lets you "search what you see" and copy text in images. Follow the links to learn how it works. 
• Speaking of "smart" image processing, if you are a dog person, rather than a cat person, AND you use Snapchat, you're probably excited about the new doggie Lenses. Cat Lenses were added back in October. 
• Flickr is accepting submissions for your best shot in 2018 through January 7th. There are prizes and your photo could be featured by Flickr.
• Facebook responded to a critical article in the New York Times that claims their "rulebook" governing policy enforcement around the world has "numerous gaps, biases and outright errors" which has "allowed extremist language to flourish in some countries while censoring mainstream speech in others." While Facebook argues that their policies are not "secret" and updates to their policies are carefully considered using input from experts outside the company. The bigger issue, though, isn't addressed, that Facebook has such a wide reach and the political and social issues it is trying to address are so complex, that it may not really be possible to get it right - especially when Facebook's algorithms promote sensationalist and provocative content.

Companies look back at 2018:

• Google: The Year in Search 2018
• Google: The Year in Search: Movies, TV, and Sports
• Google Play’s “Best of 2018”: apps, games, movies, TV and books
• Google for Nonprofits: 2018 in Review
• YouTube Rewind 2018 
• 2018 rewind: A look back at the top stories, moments and research with Google Ad Manager
• A Look Back at 2018 with Google Marketing Platform
• AdSense is excited about 2019
• 2018: The Year in Data Studio Community Connectors
• Wrapping up for 2018 with Google Play and Android
• How Google worked to make AI for everyone in 2018
• Lifehacker’s Biggest Tech Lies of 2018
• Instagram Year in Review 2018
• Facebook Watch: What We’ve Built & What’s Ahead
• Apple presents the best of 2018
• Twitter’s top tweets of 2018
• Reddit year in review 2018
• Facebook’s 2018 year in review
• Tumblr’s top fandoms 2018
• Pinterest 100: The top trends for 2019

That's it for the year. Stay tuned for my 2018 roundup, where I take a look at the past year for Google+, YouTube and more.

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links.