Peggy K's Creator News

When consumer Google+ shuts down on April 2nd, consumer users running a Hangout on Air or Hangout video call from Google Calendar will almost certainly lose access to third party apps like Hangouts Toolbox and Control Room. It is not clear whether G Suite accounts will still have access to these apps. While there currently isn't any notice inside the Hangout on Air interface, I've personally confirmed that deletion of the Google+ Profile on an account makes the apps disappear and the option to add new apps is removed.. In April 2017 Google stopped supporting the  Google+ Hangouts API . This removed most Hangouts video call apps, leaving only a few business and Hangout on Air-related apps running. From the Google+ Hangouts API FAQ, regarding changes on April 25, 2017 Since 2015, these apps have only been available in Hangouts video calls launched from Google Calendar events or Hangouts on Air live broadcasts. And - notably - they require a Google+ Profile or Google

So this is it, the last Weekly Update that I share on Google+. I started the Weekly Update in January 2015 as a way to keep track of updates to YouTube, Google+, Blogger and other Google products and to organize links to my Google+ posts. I am grateful to all of you for reading and sharing! I hope those of you who read this on Google+ will continue reading here, subscribe to the feed or by email, or follow me on Twitter for updates . So long, farewell I hope all you Plussers have downloaded the data you want to save. If not, do it now using Google Takeout or the Friends+Me Google+ Exporter (which lets you export your data in WordPress or Blogger format). Note that the Google+ Exporter was just u pdated to improve video downloads - if you uploaded a lot of videos to Google+, be sure you have the latest version. If you have a Google+ Page, note you will need to download the Page’s data separately . Your data may be gone completely on April 2nd , so really, truly download it n

The Internet Archive is a non-profit online library that includes free books, movies, music and the Wayback Machine. What is the Wayback Machine ? Internet Archive's web archive, launched in 1996, contains over 2 petabytes of data compressed, or 150+ billion web captures, including content from every top-level domain, 200+ million web sites, and over 40 languages. There is an ongoing effort to save a copy of public Google+ content to the Wayback Machine. That probably won't be able to archive everything before April 2nd. If there are specific public posts or pages on Google+ that you want to be sure are archived, you have several options. I've been using the Wayback Machine Chrome Extension to archive some of the Google+ official announcements to create links for my blog won't break. How can you help or archive a copy of your favorite posts? Enter the URL into the form at  archive.org/web/ Use the Wayback Machine extension or add-on in your browser: Chr

It just takes a few minutes to add a profile photo and customize your public Blogger profile to let your readers learn a bit more about you and your interests. When you create a Blogger Profile the only information you are required to enter is your display name. You have the option of creating adding a profile photo, and setting up public profile that will be linked from the posts you author, your comments on Blogger blogs and the Blogger Profile gadget on your blog's Layout. Profile gadget. Profile photo, name, link to profile on posted comment. Your Blogger profile is linked to all the blogs in your Blogger account. If you want to blog under more than one identity, you can create a new Blogger account on a different Google account. If you have already set up your Blogger profile, learn how to add a Profile gadget to your blog's layout. Note that if you haven't switched from a Google+ Profile to a Blogger Profile yet, jump to the end to learn how to

The goo.gl link shortening service will be shut down on March 30, 2019. This is your last chance to download your short link information. Note that the short links will continue to redirect correctly, you just won't be able to create new goo.gl links or view data about your existing goo.gl links. Google's replacement is Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL ), which are designed for app developers. Existing short goo.gl links short links will not be migrated to the Firebase console/API.

Spring has sprung, and while new Google products are budding, we’re down to the final week for Google+ and Inbox. Consumer Google+ will be shutting down in 9 days. Here is where you can find me after the shutdown of Google : You can subscribe to my blog updates by email or just the Weekly Updates by email , or if you use Feedly or another feed reader, subscribe to the feed . I regularly post on Twitter , and irregularly post tutorials to YouTube . I have accounts on MeWe and Pluspora , but I haven't really used either yet. . Google’s big announcement at this week’s Game Developer Conference is Stadia , a new cloud gaming platform integrated with YouTube. The games run on Google’s servers, with low enough latency that people using different platforms - phones, tablets, desktop computers - can play against each other, and you may see a “play now” button on YouTube that lets you jump into a game with your favorite gamer. There is a dedicated game controller, with buttons for G

Google Calendar , like many Google products, was integrated with Google+. Before consumer Google+ shuts down on April 2, 2019, the Google+ features in Google Calendar will be removed.  Google Calendar will no longer show Google+ Events Google Calendar will no longer show birthdays of people in your Google+ Circles Watch my overview : Read on for more detailed information.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day (almost)! This week there are updates for Plussers, YouTube Music fans, webmasters, ad publishers and more. This week there is a new reminder from Google+ to start the download of your content in Google Takeout by March 31 to be sure it’s archived before April 2nd. Do it! You can now download a copy of the posts from public Google+ Communities you own or moderate. Select which Google+ Communities you want to archive in Google Takeout . And if you do that, be mindful that your community members may not want their content posted anywhere outside of Google+, so ask them permission before you repost anywhere. Google+ custom URLs now redirect to a link with the user’s 21-digit user ID. After consumer Google+ shuts down, t he vanity URL will no longer work , including in links to Album Archive. Note that your YouTube custom URL will not be affected. MeWe now has a Google+ data importer . I have some questions about how it works , and I’ll share when I get answ

There is less than a month until consumer Google+ shuts down, and it is clear the end is nigh. All Google+ buttons and follower badges have disappeared from websites, the Google-wide notification bell has disappeared and more and more users are making their final farewells. But it’s not all bad, there are some nice updates from YouTube, Flickr, Google My Business and more. This week the Google API shut down, and Google+ buttons, follower badges, embedded posts and comments disappeared from blogs and websites. I f you have Google+ plugin code on your website, now is the time to remove it . This week the Google desktop notifications bell also disappeared. You can still get Google+ notifications at plus.google.com/notifications or by enabling browser notifications in your Google+ settings . Whether you are a die hard (like me) or a G Suite user, the latest version of the Android Google+ app is required. It should be version 10.26.0.233822663 or later, which was released in mid Febru

YouTube has launched a new live stream control room in YouTube Studio (beta) that you can access from anywhere on YouTube. If your YouTube channel is enabled for live streaming (check your Status and Features page ), the new control room should be available in your YouTube account. The new desktop  Live Control Room  ( www.youtube.com/livestreaming/ ) has three options: Stream Beta for live streaming using an encoder Webcam for live streaming using your computer's camera, no encoder required Manage to manage your current and scheduled live streams You can also manage your live streams and live stream archives from the Live tab on your Studio Beta ( studio.youtube.com ) Videos page. YouTube wants you to try it out and  send them your feedback ! Note that  Live Stream Events  and Stream Now are still only available in Creator Studio Classic. There is a Classic Live Streaming button to return to Classic on the bottom right of the live stream control room. Update

When consumer Google+ shuts down on April 2, your Google+ "Photos from Posts" and "Photos of You" albums in your  Album Archive will be deleted. Google Photos is a separate product, and will NOT be shutdown. Any of your photos that are in Google Photos will NOT be deleted. Photo upload, editing and management were a major draw to Google+ from its launch in 2011. Google+ offered "Instant Uploads " to back up the photos on your phone to the cloud, Creative Kit , which let you easily edit your photos, and later " Auto Awesome" enhancements . (See the timeline at the end of the post for the highlights.) Then in 2015  Google announced that Google Photos would be a standalone product, split away from Google+.  That was a harbinger of doom: just two months later Google announced that Google+ would no longer be a social layer across Google+. The new Google+ no longer included any special photo features, and had a new design where Profiles no long

March has arrived along with tons of updates for YouTube, messaging, webmasters and businesses. it’s also time to start saying goodbye:  Allo  and  Inbox  will be shut down this month. And while consumer Google+ won’t be shut down until April 2nd, the legacy Google+ API will shut down March 7th, which will affect Google+ widgets and features on 3rd party site s. Plus the  Google-wide notification bell will also disappear . It's not going to be a happy week. If you are a developer who hasn’t yet removed all Google+ API features from your app or site, be sure to read the latest update which may “help mitigate the impact of the shutdown”. Casey Newton at the Verge took a look at one of the US companies that provides contractors to moderate Facebook content , and it’s not pretty. The low-paid employees routinely view traumatic images and videos, and are allowed little leeway for errors. There is high turnover, and even after someone quits (or is fired) the lingering effects of wha