Weekly Update - December 14, 2019: YouTube, Chrome, RCS

The days grow shorter, the weather grows colder, and there is a final flurry of feature updates before the new year. There are YouTube policy updates, new features in Chrome to help protect you from entering your password in phishing sites, expanded availability of RCS - the next generation SMS - in the US, new Duo features for Pixel 4 phones and more. (At this time last year, Google had just announced that the demise of Google+ would be four month earlier than originally scheduled. This week is very quiet in comparison.)

Reminder: your YouTube Likes playlist is now private, and cannot be made public
YouTube strengthened their harassment & cyberbullying policy,which now prohibits “implied threats” or content that maliciously insults someone “based on protected attributes such as their race, gender expression, or sexual orientation." To back that up, creators who repeatedly brush up against those policies will be removed from the YouTube Partner Program, and violating videos may be removed, and result in a Community Guidelines strike. There are exceptions for scripted content (including humor and satire), harassment education, and content used for documentary, scientific or artistic purposes, but claiming it’s “just a joke” isn’t sufficient to avoid a penalty. It remains to be seen how well YouTube actually enforces the new policy.
COPPA compliance update: YouTube shared comments they submitted to the FTC asking for more clarity about what content should be considered “child-directed” and asked for the ability to “treat adults as adults” when they are watching content that is technically considered “made for kids”. Hopefully there will be more clarity before changes go into effect in January.
Yahoo Groups content will disappear from the web on December 14th at 11:59PM Pacific time. You can still download an archive of your posts to Yahoo Groups until January 31, 2020. However, the archive may not include photos or other images.
Chrome version 79 will help keep your accounts more secure, by warning you if an account username and password have been compromised in a data breach on a site or app; real-time phishing protection, to warn you when you visit a malicious site; and predictive phishing protection when entering a password stored in your account on a suspicious site. Your passwords are hashed and encrypted, and no one, including Google is able to derive your username or password from the encrypted copy. Learn how it works.
Google published their annual “Year in Search” review. The theme for 2019: We need a hero. They also looked back at the last decade - see if you remember the top stories in 2010. See all the search trends for 2019.
Your Google Search results will be more organized on mobile, not only showing relevant news, but organizing the results by story. This uses a new machine-learning powered story-understanding technology, that “maps the people, places and things involved in a news story, and then draw connections between them.” The Top Stories carousel may now also feature opinion pieces and notable quotes. This is first rolling out in English in the US, with more languages and countries to follow.
Google is launching a new Publisher Center to replace the old Google News Producer and Google News Publisher Center, designed to help publishers submit, manage and monetize their content in Google News. It has new features to manage your publication’s identity and organize your publications. Learn more.
If you have a Blogger blog, make sure it’s verified in Google Search Console. The redesigned Search Console interface has made site verification much easier. It literally takes less than a minute to verify your Blogger blog. If you aren’t sure about how to use Search Console, subscribe to Google Webmasters on YouTube, and follow their series on Search Console training.
Google Assistant Interpreter Mode is rolling out to Android and iOS phones worldwide. To start real-time translation, just say “Hey Google, be my Arabic translator” or “Hey Google, help me speak Spanish” and you can have an actual conversation with someone who doesn’t speak your language. It’s available in 44 languages.
If you have a Pixel, you should get the ability to blur the background of portrait shots in Google Photos, even on old images. (This may be limited to the Pixel 4)
There are several improvements to Google Duo video calls: auto-framing, so your face stays in the center of the screen (Pixel 4 only), smoother playback and better audio if you have a spotty internet connection (Pixel 4 only), and you can apply Portrait filter, which gently blurs the background (Pixel 2, 3 and 4)
Communication just got a better - if you use Messages on an Android phone. RCS “Chat”, an upgrade to SMS, is now available on all Android phones in the US (joining users in the UK, France and Mexico). Google is also rolling out “Verified SMS” that lets you see the true identity of a business that is texting you (US, India, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, France, Philippines, Spain and Canada), and real-time spam detection.
Finally, the December 9th Google Doodle lets you play the Mexican board game Loteria. You can play against your friends or randomly selected other players. It’s simple, but addictive. Play it.

2019 Year in Review

Read on for more news, updates and tips for webmasters, searchers, map users and more.
Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader. Miss last week’s update? Get it here.

Image: Winter trees by Jörg Vieli from Pixabay

Go Live

Social Media: Facebook and Instagram

The Future of Video Calling: Portal from Facebook Adds New Content and Features (Facebook)
Introducing Star Wars-Themed Messenger Features (Facebook)
Ready for California’s New Privacy Law (Facebook)
An Update on Building a Global Oversight Board (Facebook)
Instagram Begins Rolling Out Collaborative Group Stories Option (Social Media Today)

Social Media: Twitter

Twitter will now preserve JPEGs as they are encoded for upload on Twitter for Web (Twitter)
iOS Live Photos can now be used as GIFs (Twitter)
Bluesky project: Twitter wants to decentralize, but decentralized social network creators don’t trust it (The Verge)
Strengthening Our Trust and Safety Council (Twitter)

Other Social Media

Introducing Pinterest Trends, showing the power of insights IRL (Pinterest)
Giphy launches new video hub with — gasp — sound (Mashable)

Google Photos and Photo Sharing

Google Photos rolling out new account picker and a way to get back automated creations you dismissed (Android Police)
Depth sensing comes to ARCore (Nackblog)
Google shows off stunning new AR features coming to web and mobile apps soon (The Verge)
Meet SmugMug+Flickr Head of Trust & Safety: Holly Lawrence (Flickr)

Google for Businesses

Sterling Sky Acquires LocalU, Continues Building Local SEO All-Star Team (Sterling Sky)

Bloggers and Webmasters

Smarter organization of top stories in Search (Google)
“BERT, our new way for Google Search to better understand language, is now rolling out to over 70 languages worldwide.” (Google Search Liaison)
Launching a new Publisher Center (Google Webmasters)
What’s new in App + Web properties (Google Marketing Platform)
New Theme: Twenty Twenty (Wordpress.com news)
WordPress 5.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release (WordPress News)

AdSense and Advertising

Keep your audience engaged post holidays (AdSense)

Hangouts, Meetings and Messaging

You can now send and receive hearts on Google Duo (Android Police)
PSA: RCS, the successor to SMS, is now live for all US Android users (The Verge)
Safer conversations in Messages with Verified SMS and Spam Protection (Google)

Made by Google, Android, Google Fi

Making Pixel more helpful with the first Pixel feature drop (Google)
Google Fi brings spam warnings and Wi-Fi calling to more phones (Google)
WiFi calling, Spam blocking, & Enhance network are available on your Android compatible with Fi device (Google Fi)
Google Fi voicemails no longer available from voice.google.com (Google Fi)
How Google Play works (Google)
New Google Assistant features to customize your alarm clock (Google)

Productivity

Send emails as attachments in Gmail (G Suite Updates)
Propose a new meeting time or add a note to Calendar invites from Gmail (G Suite Updates)
Updates to Incognito mode and your Timeline in Maps (Google)
New features for contextualized gameplay and new games built with Google Maps (Google Cloud)
Google Maps 101: how imagery powers our map (Google)
Making our products more helpful in Arabic (Google)
Stable Channel Update for Desktop (Chrome Releases)
Chrome for Android Update (Chrome Releases)

Privacy and Security

Better password protections in Chrome (Google)
Better password protections in Chrome - How it works (Google Online Security Blog)
The quiet evolution of phishing (Microsoft Security)

More around the web

Why the ‘Queen of Shitty Robots’ Renounced Her Crown (WIRED)
The age of the Instagram face: How social media, FaceTune, and plastic surgery created a single, cyborgian look. (The New Yorker)
When the Streaming Platform Dies, What Happens to Its Shows? (Decider)
The Influencer and the Hit Man: How a Years-Long Domain Name Feud Ended in a Bloody Shootout (OneZero)
A DNA Firm That Caters to Police Just Bought a Genealogy Site (WIRED)
How the Internet Killed Feminist Blogging (Jezebel)
Explore the angst and beauty in famous works of art (Google)

Comments

Sheila HensleyDecember 14, 2019 at 1:19 PM
Wow. You've outdone yourself this time Peggy. A deep dive into the headings indicates a longer stay and several returns. There is a lot of important content here, thanks. I must admit that the phone Interpreter Mode forced me to stop and read that article then.

Peggy K's Creator News

Search This Blog