Peggy K's Creator News

Summer temperatures have been sizzling this week. While heat makes me a bit cranky, at least it makes my tomato plants happy. This week there is news and updates for YouTubers, webmasters, and much more. Reminder:  Hangouts on Air are going away August 1st. If you have a HOA scheduled after that date, you’ll need to reschedule and use a different service. Google Photos now has more than one billion - 1,000,000,000+ - users . But it’s not for everyone. This week Google introduced a new app called “Gallery Go” , which can be used offline and is more lightweight than the Photos app for use on entry-level phones. It joins YouTube Go and the rest of the Android Go suite of apps , designed for Google’s “next billion users” who may have phones with limited storage, slow or unreliable internet connections and low processing power. If you are interested in a bit of history, Fast Company takes a look at how Google Photos got to where it is today , starting with its split from Google+.

This week NASA - and the world - c elebrated the 50th anniversary of the first “small step for man” o n the moon. It was a momentous achievement! It was a fairly quiet week otherwise, with just a few updates for YouTubers, web browsers and businesses. (If you are interested in the logistics of space travel, and aren’t too squeamish, check out author Mary Robinette Kowel’s discussion of peeing (and other bodily functions) in space . It definitely takes away some of the glamor.) The official G Suite channel has been posting some tutorials on how to use Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Calendar and Forms. Plus there is a newly revamped G Suite Learning Center , with training and tips for all G Suite core products - which includes useful information for us consumer users as well. YouTube is working on new features that should help creators manage their comments. In particular they are developing filters that can let you view (and respond to) subsets of comments, for example from s

AdSense announced today that they will be discontinuing their Android and iOS mobile apps by the end of 2019. Update November 18, 2019: AdSense sent Publishers an email today, stating they will stop supporting the AdSense mobile application "over the next few months." That probably means it will continue to work through early 2020. They will be replaced by an improved mobile web interface: By investing in a common web application that supports all platforms, we will be able to deliver AdSense features optimized for mobile much faster than we can today. Neither the  AdSense Android app nor the iOS app been updated since late 2017. They haven't even been updated to use the current AdSense logo, which was introduced a year ago . That said, the current AdSense web experience on mobile isn't great. You can access your account, but it's just the desktop version of the site. For now, if you want to check your page views and earnings on the go, I recommend

This week is all about video, with YouTube updates, VidCon announcements and live streaming discussions. Did you know all the hip youth are on TikTok now ? I feel old just writing that. I’ve started trying out services that might replace Hangouts on Air, which will be going away sometime later this year . If you want to see the tests live and join the chat, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and enable notifications! And I’m not the only one interested in live streaming platforms, StreamYard co-founder Geige Vandentop joined Michael Daniels and Heather Kraafter on the Tinkering with Tech show.  YouTube announced changes that make it easier for creators to resolve manual Content ID claims . Claimants will now have to include timestamps with their claim, so that creators can more easily dispute the claim (if it’s incorrect) or edit the video. Editing the video to remove the claimed content now releases the claim. And to that end, YouTube has made it easier to either

At today's Industry Keynote at VidCon , YouTube's Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan discussed recent updates and some new features for YouTube Creators. YouTube is emphasizing social features that let creators connect with their audience like Stories , Premiers , and revenue streams like  Super Chat and Super Stickers . Mohan  told  Variety  earlier this week : “YouTubers have shared that they want to use YouTube to generate funds and contribute resources for things that are important to them,” Mohan said. “My job as chief product officer is to find ways to make that simpler and easier.” Here's what's new: New  Learning Playlists This is a brand new feature that I'm excited about. It's a way to organize educational content, letting you divide a collection of educational videos into chapters around key concepts, starting from beginner to more advanced. Recommendations are hidden on the watch page, so viewers can focus on the content. This is curr

Today YouTube is making two changes that should make it easier for creators to resolve manual Content ID claims : time stamps showing exactly what part of the video content is claimed, and automatic release of claims if they are edited to remove the claimed content. Content ID is a tool available to copyright holders that own the rights to a "substantial body of original material that is frequently uploaded by the YouTube user community."  Claims can be made by YouTube's automatic matching system or manually. The copyright holders can choose one of three options: Block the video from being viewed (either in specific countries or worldwide) Monetize the video (in some cases, like cover videos , revenue is shared with creators) Track the video's viewership and other stats Creators can dispute a Content ID claim if they believe the claim was incorrect, or if they have the rights to use the content. You can see any copyright claims on your videos at  www.youtu

Ever since consumer Google+ shut down on April 2nd, G Suite for Education users have been unable to create a new YouTube channel on a Brand Account. Eventually many received an email from G Suite that says G Suite for Education users will not be able to be the primary owner for Brand Accounts: Your G Suite for Education account can no longer be used to create a Brand Account or join an existing Brand Account. On July 10, 2019, Google will delete any Brand Account for which your G Suite for Education user account is the primary owner. On July 10, 2019, Google will revoke membership of your G Suite for Education user account from any remaining Brand Account you are a member of. Update June 23, 2020:  "In light of COVID-19, the planned deletion of some Brand Accounts will not occur on July 15th, as previously scheduled. " Google is "working on a long term solution." More information . Since the shutdown of consumer Google+, Brand Accounts are really only used

I hope summer is off to a great start for you! This was a relatively quiet week, with a few updates for webmasters, AdSense publishers, Twitch Affiliates and Partners and more. Google announced they are formalizing the “Robots Exclusion Protocol” that allows webmasters to exclude bots and web crawlers from specific pages of their site with a robots.txt file. Google has also open-sourced the library their production systems use for parsing and matching rules in robots.txt files. Of particular note, Google will be retiring “unsupported and unpublished rules” such as using crawl-delay, noindex or nofollow in the robots.txt file. If you have been using that, there are alternatives, such as noindex in meta tags, 404 and 410 HTTP status codes, and Disallow in robots.txt. Both AdSense and Google Ads started showing a notice that Chrome would start filtering “annoying, disruptive ads” on sites globally beginning July 9th. If you have a blog or website, check out the Ad Experience Repor

AdSense is notifying publishers that sites need to comply with the Better Ads Standards  to prevent Chrome from filtering ads starting July 9th. Google joined the Coalition for Better Ads in 2017, and began filtering ads on sites in North America and Europe in February 2018 . Earlier this year, they  announced that Chrome would no longer show "disruptive ads" globally  starting July 9th. The notice says: Global Better Ads Standards. Google Chrome will support the Better Ads Standards globally from July 9th. Ads may be filtered on Chrome browsers if you don't comply with the standard. The idea is that annoying ads can cause a poor user experience and drive people to install ad blocker s. Block the annoying ads automatically, and maybe people won't install ad blockers that block "good" ads too. To see the AdSense notice, sign in to your AdSense accoun t and click the bell icon at top right. The notice doesn't include details on how you can do t