Weekly Update: February 9, 2019 - YouTube, Google+, Security

Mid-February feels like the heart of winter. It’s been wet and cold even here in sunny California. And online, the sunset of consumer Google+ is finally in full swing. It’s not all gloom though, read on for updates to YouTube, Android and more.

• The shutdown of consumer Google+ took its first big steps this week:
• The ability to create a new Google+ Profile or Google+ Page was disabled
• Google+ Comments, badges and buttons were removed from Blogger blogs
• Also at some point in February, YouTube will remove its few remaining Google+ features.
• The Google desktop navigation bar notification bell widget will disappear on March 7th. This is currently only used for Google+, Google Photos and Hangouts Chat (for G Suite) notifications. The alternative is to use browser notifications instead.
• Rarely used Google Groups settings will be removed in May 2019 and other settings will be updated. If you are using Google Groups, be sure to check the details about what’s changing.
• Facebook announced new features for community building, including new Group management tools and filters, the ability to create Mentorship programs for all Groups, and Page admins will now be able to respond to Instagram Direct Messages from their Facebook Page inbox.
• Twitter announced they have 321 million monthly users, down from last quarter. Going forward they will only share the number of “monetizable daily active users” , which makes it hard to compare with other social media platforms.
  
  A few Plussers have tried to compare Twitter’s 126 million “mDAU” to the estimated 111 million active Google+ users had in 2015, but that’s like comparing apples to potatoes: the Google+ number was a rough approximation based on a lot of extrapolation of how many Google+ Profiles had at least one public post ever in Google+’s then 4-year history. That seems pretty low compared to Twitter’s daily users. But, on the other hand, public post numbers don’t take into account private posting or other activity. And on the third hand, that estimate was made before Google+ separated from YouTube and was totally redesigned. As Google hasn’t provided any actual numbers in many years we may never know how Google+ compared to other social media platforms, but I’m willing to bet that over the past year it’s been significantly less than 100 million active users per day.
• YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki took a rosy look back at 2018 and forward to the coming year. “Billions of comments were made” and there are lots more channels earning six figures and with more than a million subscribers (no exact numbers were given). She announced three goals for 2019: “supporting creator and artist success”, “improving communication and engagement”, “living up to YouTube’s responsibility”. It’s pretty similar to her 2018 priorities for Creators, so it seems YouTube trying to continue moving in the same direction. 
• YouTube Memberships - similar to Twitch Subscriptions or Patreon Sponsorships - are now available to Partnered channels with at least 30,000 subscribers.
• If you are wondering how Recommendations on YouTube work, be sure to check out last week’s AMA with the product team in the official YouTube community.
• Periscope, Twitter’s live streaming platform, now lets you go live with guests, and invite anyone in your audience to join your broadcast.
• Skype on desktop will now blur your background, so you don’t need to tidy your room or office before your next video call.
• Google Search Console is going to start assigning search metrics to a single Google-selected canonical URL. That will combine search metrics for single pieces of content that may use multiple URLs, for example separate mobile or AMP pages.
• There are now more than 5 million paying businesses using Google’s G Suite, which includes email, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Hangouts and Google+. That’s just a small fraction of the number of free users, of course.
• February is Black History Month, and Twitch and YouTube are celebrating Black creators.
• There’s a new dancing Childish Gambino Playmoji pack for AR Playground on Pixel phones. They are going for a realistic look, and he will even react to your facial expressions. Google wants to see your dance moves alongside him in a #pixeldanceoff .
• Google is working to make your accounts more secure: For web browsing there is a new Google Password Checkup Chrome extension that will warn you when sign in to a site using compromised credentials And to secure more devices Google introduced Adiantum, a “new form of encryption … built specifically to run on phones and smart devices that don’t have the specialized hardware to use current methods to encrypt locally stored data efficiently.” This allows many more devices, including smart watches and internet-connected medical devices to encrypt sensitive data.
• Google launched two new Android apps for the deaf and hard-of-hearing: Live Transcribe uses cloud-based automatic speech recognition to display spoken words in more than 70 languages. Sound Amplifier lets you use your wired headphones with your smartphone to augment sounds in your environment while reducing background noise.

Read on for more links, tips and updates for Plussers, webmasters and more.

Image: Thursday, February 14th is Valentine’s Day. These candy hearts are for all of you. (photo by parnote on Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain). Google has a look at love in 2019 and explains how you can avoid the heartache of Valentine’s Day planning with Google.

Upcoming

• February: YouTube removing the remaining Google+ features
• February 12: Old Google Contacts shut down for G Suite (maybe for consumers too?)
• February 17: Deadline to apply for YouTube NextUp London: Special Edition #YouTubeBlack

YouTube and Video Creation

• YouTube Memberships are now available to Partner channels with at least 30,000 subscribers
• YouTube in 2019: Looking back and moving forward (Susan Wojcicki)
• YouTube Recommendations AMA Ask the YouTube Team! (YouTube)
• Creator Insider answers common questions about YouTube Studio Beta (Creator Insider)

Go Live

• Go Live, Together on Periscope (Periscope)
• New channel moderation tools are now live in Twitch chat (Twitch)

Google+

• The Google desktop notifications bell will disappear March 7th - switch to browser notifications for Google+, Photos and Hangouts Chat
• Update to Google+ Exporter adds author name tag for Blogger exported posts and more(Friends+Me)
• Possible Google+ Community migration option: Tapatalk Groups (Winter Wong)
• Google+ going away has no impact on your Google Photos library (John Nack)

Other social media

• Twitter keeps losing monthly users, so it’s going to stop sharing how many (The Verge)
• Facebook announces new features for community building (Facebook)
• Facebook is still trying to figure out what teens are interested in (Recode)
• Facebook will reveal who uploaded your contact info for ad targeting (TechCrunch)
• Changes We’re Making to Do More to Support and Protect the Most Vulnerable People who Use Instagram (instagram)
• TikTok Can't Save Us from Algorithmic Content Hell (Motherboard)
• Why Spotify is betting big on podcasting (TechCrunch)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• Google+ going away has no impact on your Google Photos library (John Nack)
• Flickr extends its deletion deadline to March after user outcry (The Verge)

Google for businesses

• Google and Brands (have you been doing it wrong?) (Robert Wallis @ Social Media)

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Consolidating your website traffic on canonical URLs (Google Webmasters)
• Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Ilyes AMA on Reddit  (Reddit r/TechSEO)
• Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (February 5) (Google Webmasters)
• Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (February 8) (Google Webmasters)
• WordPress introduces six new business-oriented themes (WordPress.com)
• bingbot Series: Get your content indexed fast by now submitting up to 10,000 URLs per day to Bing (Bing)

AdSense and advertising

• A deeper connection between Google Analytics 360 and Salesforce Sales Cloud (Google Marketing Platform)
• Google Partners Academy on Air: Reach the right customers with Smart Bidding 

Hangouts and Messaging

• Design better meeting rooms: new hardware partnerships for Hangouts Meet (Google Cloud)
• Skype’s new background blur helps you avoid cleaning your house or office (Skype)

Made by Google, Android, Google Fi

• #pixeldanceoff with Childish Gambino on your Pixel phone (Google_
• Making audio more accessible with two new apps (Google)
• Real-time Continuous Transcription with Live Transcribe (Google AI)

Productivity

• Changes to Google Groups settings starting May 6, 2019 (G Suite Updates)
• Upcoming changes to the Google Groups Settings API (Google Cloud)
• Instant tethering comes to more Chromebooks, letting you access the internet with no Wi-Fi access (Google)
• Stable Channel Update for Chrome OS (Chrome 72) (Chrome Releases)
• Chrome for Android Update (Chrome 72) (Chrome Releases)

Privacy and Security

• Big Telecom Sold Highly Sensitive Customer GPS Data Typically Used for 911 Calls (Motherboard)
• Use the new Google Password Checkup Chrome extension to be warned when signing into a site with compromised credentials (Google)
• Introducing Adiantum: Encryption for the Next Billion Users (Google Online Security Blog)
• Google Is working with security researchers to make the web safer for everyone (Google)
• Advancing research on fake audio detection (Google)

More around the web

• Try your hand at the art of shadow puppetry, with help from AI (Google)
• Now is the time to fix the EU copyright directive (Google)