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Weekly Update - January 11, 2020: YouTube, Assistant & more

2020 is finally in full swing. YouTube has limited features on channels with content made for kids, Google Assistant announced at CES, you can control how you appear in Bing search, and more.
  • ICYMI: I was on the Tinkering with Tech show, talking about the YouTube Partner Program and AdSense.
  • This week YouTube started rolling out the changes to “Made for Kids” content, removing or limiting some features. If a video or channel is directed at kids, it will not have personalized ads (but it may have non-personalized ads), comments, live chat, notification bell, stories, the option to save to a playlist, and other features (to see what that looks like, see this video on the Sesame Street channel).
  • In YouTube Studio on desktop, when you are typing a video description the description box expands as you type.
  • CES - the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - was this week. Among the many robots, gadgets and smart devices, Google announced new Chromebooks and a number of updates to Google Assistant: virtual sticky notes on smart displays; “interpreter mode” is expanding to airports, hotels and banks around the world; reading aloud web pages with long-form content; and many more devices. “Scheduled Actions” will be available later this year, which will let you set a specific time for an action (“start the coffee maker at 6AM”). And to help keep your data private, if you trigger the Assistant by accident, you can say “Hey Google, that wasn’t for you,” so Assistant will forget what it heard. ”For more details about other announcements at CES, see the links below.
  • Facebook has launched new video metrics - Traffic Source Insights - so you can see the amount of watch time your videos get from different traffic sources.
  • Bing has quietly launched personal Pages to manage your personal in Bing Search and Outlook. Sign up for a Page (which you can do here) and Bing “pulls together your brand’s social media feeds into your own page that you control.” You can link to your Twitter (required), Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Mixer and your official site. You can also promote your social media posts in Bing Search for free. Seems like it’s worth checking out. I’ve filled out the form, but as of this writing it’s not verified yet.
  • If you are in Europe, and use an Android device, you’ll soon be able to select a default search engine other than Google. As part of the 2018 EU Antitrust ruling, Google was asked to allow users to select which search engine was the default. Google determined the alternate search engines by running an auction. All countries will be able to select Duck Duck Go or Info.com. The fourth search engine varies by country. Android Police has a full list here.Changes go into effect in March.
  • Google Research recapped their work in 2019, with a number of pretty cool AI and machine learning-based updates, including map visualizations, augmented reality (AR) applications, automated translations and transcription, and much more.
Read on for more news, updates and tips for webmasters, Chrome users and more..
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Image: Ice by Pezibear on Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

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