Peggy K's Creator News

Today Google AdSense emailed Publishers (including me) a notice that they will be updating and simplifying the ad unit options in Ads Tab. The changes reflect a shift towards richer media in ads and more reliance on Google's optimization algorithms and machine learning, rather than custom settings. It will include the following changes, which are rolling out in the coming weeks: All ad units will be Responsive by default. Responsive sizing allows the ads to adjust to different screen sizes. You will still be able to create ad units with a fixed size . Text-only and display-only ad units are being phased out. "Text ads only" and "Display ads only" ad units will be renamed "Display ads" and will be updated to serve all ad types. Custom text ad styles are being deprecated.  You will no longer be able to create ad styles for new ad units and existing ad styles will have "Google-optimized text ad styling." Custom "If no ads avai...

YouTube Gaming launched with great fanfare nearly four years ago, in June 2015. The YouTube Gaming app and site were organized around game play content, especially live streams, and launched features like dark mode, Super Chat and channel Memberships. Many of those features were incorporated into YouTube proper, and, last September, YouTube announced they c reated a new home for gaming content on YouTube itself, at www.youtube.com/gaming  and would be shutting down the YouTube Gaming app. That time has come, and the YouTube Gaming app will stop working on May 30. Why shut it down? YouTube says  it's about reaching a larger audience: We have a strong and vibrant audience on the YouTube Gaming app, but the amount of gamers we are able to reach is far bigger on YouTube. After all, YouTube is where more than 200 million gamers come to engage with your favorite games and creators every day, watching over 50 billion hours of gaming content in the last 12 months alone. Yo...

Memorial Day weekend in the US is meant to honor those who died in military service, and is the unofficial beginning of summer. It usually leans more towards barbeques than quiet reflection. But that may be why this week it’s less a flood of updates than a trickle. Google Duo, Google’s consumer video calling platform, now offers end-to-end encrypted group video calls with up to 8 people , the ability to send personalized video messages with text and emoji, and data-saving mode in select countries including India, Indonesia and Brazil. Maybe they will change the name from “Duo” to “Octo”. Google Search results on mobile are getting a new look. The name of the website and its favicon appear more prominently at the top of each result, and ads will have a bolder “Ad” label. Check out the difference . You can now order food directly from Google Maps, Search and Assistant. For participating restaurants you can either order food for pickup or delivery with just a few taps. Delivery us...

There are three spring events where Google announces its plans for new products and features: Google Cloud Next for cloud services, G Suite, business and education; the Google I/O developer conference , where new products, features and hardware are announced; and this week’s Google Marketing Live , which is all about ads. If you own a business, there are new opportunities for promotion. If you are a publisher or partner, this may affect your revenue. And if you’re a consumer it’s a heads up about the new ads you’ll be seeing (yay?). But that's not all. There are new Shopping and Trips portals for your Google account, more details about getting your podcast in Search, opportunities for YouTube creators, the big tech companies signing the Christchurch Call to Action and working together against the spread of violent extremist content and much more. At Google Marketing Live Google presented the latest on their digital marketing products and advertising. If you are an advertis...

Happy Mother’s day to all you moms! I hope your loving children get you something nice, like a bouquet of flowers or a new Pixel 3a. T his week was Google I/O, Google’s annual developer conference. Google announced new hardware, app features, upcoming changes to Android, and updates related to the Google ecosystem, including Search and Google Assistant. This year’s theme was “getting things done”, “for everyone” with an emphasis on accessibility, privacy and security. And there were updates webmasters, podcasters and other creative folks. Read on for an overview of my top announcements this week. Be sure to also see all the links below for detailed information. And, of course, there are more updates outside of Google I/O for video creators, webmasters and more. It’s now easier to access your Google Account settings from all major Google products on mobile devices, including Drive, Gmail, Contacts, Pay and coming to Search, Maps, YouTube, Chrome, Assistant and News. Just clic...

May the Fourth be with you! This week there’s updates for YouTubers, advertisers, webmasters and more. Plus there were big changes coming to Facebook and Messenger announced at this week’s F8 Facebook developer conference. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki posted her 2019 priorities : “Living up to our responsibility”, taking strong action when needed, like turning off comments on blogs featuring kids; “Supporting creator and artist success” by better explaining policies, improving the copyright claim system, making sure there are more native YouTube videos on the Trending tab, and discouraging harassment; and “Improving communication and engagement” with creators. This week was YouTube’s Brandcast Event for advertiser s, highlighting new advertising opportunities and assure advertisers their brand won’t be associated with unsuitable content.. By the numbers: viewers spend more than 250 million hours per day watching YouTube videos on TV screens, and YouTube now reaches more 18 to 49 yea...