Weekly Update - November 28, 2020: Hangouts, Meet, YouTube

This week there are updates to classic Hangouts and Meet, new features being tested on YouTube, and more for YouTubers, business owners, web creators, and social media mavens.

I posted a couple tutorials: 

• Quick tip: Blogger offers more than 1000 fonts for your posts. Learn how to use them (or watch the video).
• Tutorial: How to use Google Meet video calling in classic Hangouts (or watch the video). If you have been using classic Hangouts video calling, try Meet. I think you'll like it.

YouTube

• YouTube is testing automatic video chapters. This uses machine learning to automatically create the chapters. You can opt out or send feedback using this form.
• YouTube is also testing a way to add automatic timestamps when you comment on a video. That way if you want to say “this is the awesome bit” people can see what you are referring to.
• Creator Insider answers 8 user questions about how YouTube’s algorithms work.
• You can now report bad YouTube ads on mobile, in addition to on the web.

Social Media

• Snapchat has introduced “Spotlight”, a new video sharing platform. Content moderators review all submitted videos before they are posted publicly. Up to $1 million a day will be split between the “top” videos. The question is whether this will become a real TikTok competitor. (Casey Newton has a great overview).
• Twitter wants your feedback on their proposed new verification policy. And no, they aren’t handing out blue checkmarks.
• And Twitter is now showing suggested Topic Tweets in your Home timeline. They really want you to subscribe to Topics.
• There are new fundraising tools on Facebook and Instagram. In the US, Facebook is also launching “Drives” which helps you collect donations of food, clothes and other items.

Web Creators

• Google Search Console has a new version of the Crawl Stats Report, where you can see crawl requests details and see information about any problems with the Googlebot crawling your site.
• Get a recap of November Google Search news from the Google Search Central (formerly Google Webmasters) channel.
• Blogger offers more than 1000 fonts from Google Fonts for your posts. Learn how to use them (or watch the video).
• I also learned about the Noto font family designed to “support all languages with a harmonious look and feel”, including many endangered languages. The Noto Fonts site even shows where in the world a particular language script is used. You can download and use the fonts for free.
• If you are giving Web Stories a try, use these 7 tips for getting creative.

Video Calling

• Just for fun: glam up with the new L’oreal face filter in Google Duo. Or put on a turkey suit.
• The migration from classic Hangouts video calls to Meet is moving forward. Now if you call a group from classic Hangouts your only option is to share a Meet link (this will be limited to people in your group chat). For one-to-one conversations you can still choose to make a Hangouts video call.
• Meet Attendance Reports are now available to more Google Workspace customers, and include the in-organization livestream viewership data and report creation controls. Attendance Reports are available for Google Workspace Essentials, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus, and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers.

Productivity

Google’s Recorder app now has machine learning based “Smart Scrolling” that marks important sections of the transcript and highlights keywords as you scroll.
Google Contacts is now available in Gmail on the web. You will also be able to see your email history with them. Google Workspace customers can see additional information like office and desk location. (It may take a couple weeks for this to be available in your account)
You can now edit Microsoft Office files in the iOS Google Docs, Slides and Sheets apps.This feature is already available on Android and the web. This replaces Quickoffice.

Business

• Google My Business updated their dashboard. Local U has a tour.
• Street Fight has the most important local search updates for 2020.

More

• If you are in the UK, find and download classic movies such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" or "Monty Python’s Life of Brian," on Google Maps. Available from now until Dec. 10.
• Make fantastical creatures with Google’s AI “Chimera Painter”.
• Get “The Mandalorian AR experience” on the Pixel 5 and select other Android phones.
• If you are a Billie Elish fan, check out the YouTube “Infinite Badguy” site. This is an “unique AI experiment [that[ uses machine learning to bring thousands of covers together, seamlessly aligning them in endless combinations, creating a music video that’s different every time you watch it.”

That’s all the updates for this week. Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get it here.

Image: Turquoise beads by wildwoodstones from Pixabay