Weekly Update - March 6, 2021: YouTube, Privacy, Twitter

This week there are some great new features, tips, and learning opportunities for creators. Some highlights include new metrics in YouTube Analytics, a new Explore page in Google Photos on desktop, the option to sync your Google Recorder recordings to your Google account, and Twitter Spaces becoming (partially) available on Android devices.

There’s lots more, so read on!

New tutorial: Use Google Meet’s “green room” to check your mic and camera before joining the video call.

Reminder: AdSense Link Units will be retired March 10. Check your website or blog to see if you need to remove or replace the Link Unit ad code

YouTube

• YouTube introduced two new metrics in Analytics: new viewers and returning viewers.This can help you better understand your channel’s audience. Note that “returning viewers” may not include viewers who use a private browser, who deleted their watch history or who haven’t watched your channel in over a year.
• The mobile YouTube Studio app now shows video restrictions, like copyright claims.
• If you are a YouTube Partner and have violence in your videos, YouTube is offering guidance on how to self-rate your content.
• Sometimes getting the timing right is the key to having a video take off. Paolo Amoroso shares how he got 9k YouTube views in 24 hours.
• Barry Schwartz at SEO Roundtable spotted a new interface for video key moments in Google Search.

Publishers

• Soon Chrome will stop supporting third party cookies. While some advertising platforms say they will use other methods of tracking, Google explicitly stated “once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.” Instead Google will use “Federated Learning of Cohorts” (FLoC) to deliver interested-based ads. Google says this work almost as well as cookie tracking, which is good news for both advertisers and publishers.
• Google Web Creators is sharing Blogger tips. Set a favicon, format HTML, link Google Analytics, use the advanced search features, and check your Stats. See the Tweet thread for deets.
• Google has a new podcast called PubCast that “explores the stories of website creators and app developers who turned their passions into profit with Google.” If you are interested in being featured, submit this feedback form.
• Recipeasly was a short-lived site that extracted just the recipes from recipe blogs, removing the “ads and life stories.” They shut down after an outcry from food bloggers. I’m hoping this is a hint to food bloggers that sometimes visitors want to be able to skip the story and get right to the recipe.

Photos

• The desktop version of Google Photos (photos.google.com) has a new Explore page and has added Favorites to the Library section. This is similar navigation to the mobile app. Still missing? The “Your Map” that lets you navigate your photos by location. That’s one of my favorite features in the mobile app.
• Apple has launched a tool that lets you transfer a copy of your photos in iCloud to Google Photos.

Communication

• New features coming to Google Meet: improvements to the mobile app with mobile tile view, split screen, picture-in-picture, and background replacement. They are also creating “second screen experiences” so that people using a mix of devices, including the Nest Hub Max and Google Meet hardware, have full features including presenting, chat, Q&A, and polls.
• Google Duo on Android is using a new audio technology called Lyra that gives people high-quality and reliable audio during video calls when on a 2G network. And Google is making it open source. Get the technical details.
• Google Meet is making it easier to join calls from third party video conferencing systems. Meet supports third party devices that use the Pexip Infinity Gateway, including systems from Cisco, Polycom, Lifesize, Sony, Microsoft Skype for Business and Surface Hub.
• Meet-focused Google Workspace Essentials is getting Chat, Jamboard and Calendar, in addition to Meet, Drive, and Docs. If you don’t need Gmail or other Workspace features, Essentials seems like a pretty good deal.
• Ryne Hager’s article “Life and Death of Hangouts: A Google Tragedy” hit home. If you are a long-time Hangouts user, give it a read. On the positive side, Google Meet is an improvement on Hangouts video calling, and Chat has nice features. It’s time for Hangouts to go.
• WhatsApp video calls are now available on WIndows and Mac desktop computers. Video calls are end-to-end encrypted.

Social Media

• Instagram introduced Live Rooms that lets four people to go live together.
• Twitter’s audio-only “Spaces” are now available to Android users. You can join and talk in a Space, but you still need an iOS device to create a “Space”. Why does this matter? Social audio chat is the latest trend, with the Clubhouse app taking off, and imitators following it its wake.
• Twitter is removing support for embedded Like, Moment and Collection timelines on June 23rd. They suggest updating to an embedded Profile or Lists timeline, which will continue to be supported.
• The summaries for Twitter’s “Trending” topics are written by real people. OneZero interviews Twitter’s director of curation Joanne Geary to learn how her team attempts to remove the “WTF?” from the trending tab.
• Facebook shared tips on running a successful paid online event.
• Flickr has a new notifications center and settings, with new notification types.  
• TikTok Q&A is now available to all Creator Accounts. This makes it easy for creators to see and respond to questions in their comments. It also adds a Q&A page link to a creator’s Profile bio, which leads to a screen with all questions and answers aggregated. I’d love a feature like this on YouTube.

Productivity

• If you use GBoard on your Android device, check out this overview of hidden shortcuts.
• Did you know that Google Slides has a built in “laser pointer” you can use to highlight content during a presentation? Check out this video tip on the Google Workspace YouTube channel to see how it works. And as a bonus there’s no risk of inadvertently blinding your audience as you wave the laser pointer around.
• If you miss the “Save to Google Drive” option in Chrome printer dialog, install the official Save to Drive extension.
• It’s now easier to manage and customize multiple Chrome profiles.

More

• Google Recorder is a Pixel app that lets you easily record audio with a live transcription. You can now backup your recordings to your Google account at recorder.google.com, and share links to Recorder audio files and transcripts. If you have an Android phone that isn’t a Pixel, there’s a work-around that may let you install and use the Recorder app.
• If you use Google Earth in your projects, check out Google Earth Outreach for live and on-demand training. Start by learning how to create and share stories in Google Earth Web. There is also a live Q&A session with the Google Earth team on March 17th. Register now.
• Niantic - the company that makes Pokemon Go - is collaborating with Microsoft to develop new augmented reality (AR) experiences. Their proof-of-concept demo is pretty cool.
• The Verge has an explainer for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are part of the Ethereum blockchain. There’s a lot of discussion this week about using NFTs to sell digital art, which is currently going for crazy proces. At this writing, bidding on the “original” Nyan Cat GIF is up to 300ETH or $472,000. And yes, it’s the same GIF you can see for free on the auction page.

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.

Photo: Pile of threads by Chris F from Pexels