Happy Holi to my Indian readers! Google has information, art and games
at their Holi@Home portal. This week there are updates for bloggers, video creators, Meet, Chat and
more.
New tutorial: I’m still learning about social media Stories. This week I compared Story options for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. I also made a quick video showing the options to download your Story content on different platforms.
New tutorial: I’m still learning about social media Stories. This week I compared Story options for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. I also made a quick video showing the options to download your Story content on different platforms.
Also be sure to vote in my YouTube poll on what type of Stories you use.
Photo: Holi photo by Pexels from Pixabay. Free for commercial use.
YouTube and Video Creators
- When you upload a video to YouTube on desktop, there is now a “Checks” step that automatically scans your uploaded video for copyright claims and (if monetizing) ad-suitability. That review is usually complete within 3 minutes.
- Creator Insider answers user questions about YouTube Shorts (on YouTube).
- YouTube Creators has an overview of new features for Premieres, including Live Redirect (from a live stream to the Premiere), trailers, and countdown themes. The catch? These are only currently available to channels with at least 1000 subscribers.
Social Media and Copyright
- Facebook is expanding use of its “Rights Manager” tool to allow a Page to claim and collect ad revenue from other Pages using its content. They are also adding image search (search by uploading an image) and including search results from Facebook Shops and Instagram posts with product tags.
- Twitch has provided Creators more options to deal with copyright claims, including mass deletion of video clips. Wes Fenlon at PC Gamer speculates about what Twitch needs to do to “escape it’s new DMCA hell”. Twitch long ignored potential copyright issues, and it’s creators on the platform who have paid the price so far (for example having to mass delete all their video clips because Twitch doesn’t provide detailed copyright claim notices). Will it be their own version of Content ID? Or will Amazon cut a deal with the music industry? Twitch isn’t providing any hints.
Webmasters and Bloggers
- Did you catch this week’s debate about “zero click Google searches”? Rand Fishkin of Spark Toro published a study that claims 65% of Google searches don’t result in a click on a website link. Google countered that they are sending more traffic to websites than ever before. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land thinks both are right AND both are wrong.
- Medium, the social blogging platform, has pivoted yet again (and again). It’s ending its experiment with original journalism, and most of its editorial team has been offered a buyout (or will be reassigned). Casey Newton at the Verge takes a look at the mess. One employee told Newton: ““[CEO Ev Williams] keeps talking like this company founded in 2012 is a brand new startup finding its way,” one told me. “At a certain point you’re not nimble and iterating. You’re just floundering and failing to follow through and execute.”
- Adam at Too Clever By Half explains what’s the deal with blog RSS feeds, and how it’s like a broadcast where you can’t really tell who’s listening. Related: Keven Drum has a provocative (yet plausible) theory about why Google, Facebook and Twitter haven’t jumped to support RSS since the demise of Google Reader. And yes, it’s because RSS broadcasts content directly to users.
- Starting in Chrome version 90, the Chrome address bar will use https:// by default. If HTTPS:// fails, then it will fall back to HTTP://. If your blog or website is not using HTTPS, it’s overdue to update it.
- Firefox 87 will trim HTTP referrers for cross-origin requests as a privacy measure. What does that mean? If someone visiting www.example.com/cool-websites.html clicks a link to my site (for example), the referrer will be just www.example.com. That means the exact page where the site visitor started will not be available in Analytics.
- AdSense is launching a new video series on “Sustainable Monetized Websites”.
Communication
- Google Chat on the web (chat.google.com) and the Chat Progressive Web App are getting an updated interface, similar to Chat in Gmail. The chat.google.com URL will redirect to Gmail (mail.google.com/chat). Notable changes: addition of the quick access side panel with access to Calendar, Keep, Maps and Tasks; access shared Files and Tasks; improved organization of Rooms and Chats on the left menu; integration with Meet and more.
- There are now more notification options for Google Chat. You can choose Notify Always (be notified of all new messages), Notify Less (notifications for mentions and followed threads, and optionally new threads in threaded rooms), and Notifications Off.
- Slack now lets you direct message people at other companies. The response from many was that this will be a “nightmare”, especially as Slack seems to have not considered potential issues with harassment. .
Video Meetings
- Google Meet mobile apps can now show live captions in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish in addition to English. This option is currently limited to users in Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. These additional languages have been available on desktop since December.
- Zoom finally has background blur. Unfortunately it’s not available in the web version.
- Microsoft Teams meetings now can include live transcription in English.
Productivity
- It’s now easier to find documents shared with you in Google Drive.
Photo: Holi photo by Pexels from Pixabay. Free for commercial use.
Very in-depth overview of the news that matters to me. Thanks
ReplyDeleteGlad you found it informative!
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