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Showing posts from 2021

Weekly Update - December 18, 2021: Holiday Meets, Twitter Video, Instagram Embeds

This week you can make your virtual holiday parties more festive, watch automatically captioned Twitter videos, and embed your Instagram profile on your website. Plus there are new features for Calendar, Docs, Drive and Slides to improve your productivity into 2022.  If you are a YouTube creator and partner, be sure to check your AdSense US tax settings (go paperless!) and check out Qaya, Area 120's new merch storefront. Read the details below. This is the last Weekly Update until 2022! The next edition will be Sunday January 2, then will return to the usual Saturday schedule. There will be an end-of-year round-up in the meantime. Have a wonderful holiday, a merry Christmas and on to the new year! Reminder: you can get the Weekly Update in nicely-formatted email form by signing up for my newsletter. Holiday Cheer Use the new winter holiday background in Google Meet or the (slightly disturbing) Duo AR Christmas tree to make your Christmas meetups more

Weekly Update - December 11, 2021: YouTube Permissions, Google Chat callss, Meta's Horizon Worlds

  As 2021 winds down, there were a slew of new features announced for YouTube (Permissions support in Live Control Room, Places Mentioned, subscription collections), Meta (professional mode for Profiles, comment moderation tools, Facebook Live features, Horizon Worlds metaverse opening), Google Chat (video and audio calls), Google Workspace tools (tables in Docs, shortcuts in Drive, Tasks in Calendar), and much more. Plus you can get your end-of-year recaps from YouTube Music, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook. Find out where all your time went! Reminder: if you would like the Weekly Update in your email Inbox, subscribe to my newsletter. Note that FeedBurner-based email subscriptions may be turned off at any time. More Best of 2021 If you are looking for the top 2021 trends for YouTube, GIPHY and more, c heck out last week’s update . Google released their Year in Search 2021 . You can dig into all the search trends around the world, or check out the top entertainment trends . T

Weekly Update - December 4, 2021: Best of 2021; Twitter personal info policy; Google Photos memories

I want to start this week's update with a pearsonal plea. This week I got my COVID booster shot. There were some minor side effects, but it is worth it. If you are eligible, and haven’t gotten your vaccination or booster yet, please do, for your health, for the health of your family, friends and co-workers, and to help prevent new variants from emerging. In the US you can find a location at www.vaccines.gov or on your state’s vaccination website (in California it’s myturn.ca.gov ). Do it now, and you will have protection in time for your Christmas and New Year's Eve parties. Just do it. OK, with that out of the way, this week we take a look back on what was popular in 2021, and have a few creator updates. There was a change in leadership and policy at Twitter, new creator features on YouTube, Facebook, Clubhouse and LinkedIn; new Memories in Google Photos and more. Best of 2021 Facebook’s GIPHY shared the top GIFs of 2021 . Here’s number one : And 2021 has often been ...

Weekly Update - November 27, 2021: YouTube uploads, Reddit video, AdSense Matched Content

As we move into December (already!), tech companies are slowing feature launches. That, plus the US Thanksgiving holiday, means few updates this week. YouTube If you have a YouTube channel, you should have received an email announcing a Terms of Service updates taking effect January 5th. The content has been reorganized and made a bit more transparent, but there do not appear to be any substantial changes in the terms. Read the updated terms . YouTube is rolling out a new feature that lets you reuse details from previous uploads . During the upload process, you can choose to reuse title, description, video language, shorts sampling permission, or category. This is different from the default upload settings, as those automatically apply to every video you upload. Learn more. YouTube is testing search insight s, which let you see what your audience looks for on YouTube, and also let you see information for any keyword search on YouTube. And, kind of excitingly, they are looking at “

Weekly Update - November 20, 2021: Google Meet, Google News Initiative, Twitter

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States. It’s a day for feasting, family and giving thanks. Thanks to all of you for reading! New this week: Google Meet has new immersive backgrounds, Google News Initiative offers new data analysis & presentation tools for journalists (and everyone else), and Twitter makes the case for pseudonymity. And more. If you want to be sure you get this newsletter in your email inbox, subscribe to my newsletter . Top Updates Google Meet is rolling out new immersive backgrounds on the web, with “subtle animation” and different versions for different weather (sunny, rainy, snowy). Three new backgrounds will be available to everyone, with five additional immersive backgrounds and color filters available to Google Workspace and G Suite customers (excluding Google Workspace Individual customers). The Google News Initiative supports journalists and local newsrooms with money and tools. There are new data analysis tools available to every

Weekly Update - November 13, 2021: YouTube hides dislikes, Twitter Blue, Lightship AR Platform

The big news this week is that YouTube no longer displays dislike counts on videos (but you can still dislike). There are also new features for creators who use StreamYard, Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories, Clubhouse Rooms and more. Beyond creator tools, Twitter Blue subscriptions, with fancy Twitter features, are now more widely available. And there are updates to the metaverse and live stream shopping (prediction for 2022:metaverse shopping). Top Updates YouTube stopped displaying dislike counts on videos . You can still dislike a video, which will help tune your recommendations. The channel owner will see the video dislike numbers in Analytics in YouTube Studio, but the numbers are not publicly visible. YouTube tested this earlier this year, and found a decrease in dislike attacks, which disproportionately affect smaller creators. The response has been mixed, but I think it’s a positive change. As I noted on Twitter , there is no way t

Weekly Update - November 6, 2021: AdSense, Google Business, Facebook

As we move into November, tech companies are starting their last push of new features before the end of the year. This week AdSense announced improvements to its in-account Policy Center; Google My Business is now Google Business Profile, with new management tools in Maps and Search; and Facebook announced it’s shutting down its facial recognition system (but Meta is not). Plus there are updates for web publishers, Instagrammers, Twitter Spaces hosts, Facebook Group owners, NaNoWriMo writers, online shoppers and more. Upcoming November 7 : I’ll be hosting the #OnEBoardChat Twitter chat on Sunday, November 7 at 11AM Pacific time. Everyone is welcome to join the discussion. Follow me or the #OnEBoardChat hashtag for the latest. The topic will be autumn, and how that relates to your creative and business activities. That will be followed by the Premiere of OnEBoard’s collaborative Autumn movie. November 12 : Deadline to apply for the Google Black and Latinx Publisher’s Summit. Th

Weekly Update - October 30, 2021: YouTube, Facebook/Meta, Instagram

Happy Halloween! Whether you are dressing up and partying or spending a quiet weekend at home, I hope you have more treats than tricks. There were a number of updates announced this week at Facebook Connect and Adobe Max. The biggest news was Facebook (the parent company) changing their name to Meta, and going all in on the “metaverse”. Adobe announced a number of product updates, including limited versions of Illustrator and Photoshop coming to the web. Plus there are tips and updates for YouTube creators, AdSense publishers, Instagrammers, Google productivity tools and more.  YouTube Policy Update Starting November 1, YouTube videos “made for kids” that are “low quality” may lose monetization . Channels with low quality content aimed at children may have their monetization completely suspended. What does “low quality” mean? YouTube is initially focusing on content that encourages negative behaviors or attitudes, but they also don’t want content that is overly commer

Low-quality "made for kids" content on YouTube cannot be monetized

If you create YouTube videos aimed at children , you need to meet YouTube's high quality principles for kids and family content to be eligible for monetization.  Channels with low-quality kids' content, especially content that "encourages negative behaviors or attitudes", may have limited ads or be suspended from the YouTube Partner Program. High-quality kids' content is also more likely to be recommended and included in YouTube Kids app. This policy goes into effect in November 2021.  What does YouTube mean by "High Quality" and "Low Quality" Kids' Content? Watch this video from YouTube Creators for an overview. If you make content for children, you should review all of the suggested best practices . High Quality Principles to promote in your videos for kids Being a good person Learning and inspiring curiousity Creativity, play and sense of imagination Interaction with real-world issues Divers