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Showing posts from June, 2022

Colorful Google Meet backgrounds by artist Deborah Lee

Korean-American illustrator  Deb Lee has contributed several colorful backgrounds to Google Meet this year, including a celebration of Lunar New Year and the current Pride background:   I hope we'll be seeing more of her illustrations in Meet. This dynamic koi illustration is my favorite:  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Deb JJ Lee (@jdebbiel) Seasonal Google Meet backgrounds may only be available for a limited time, so these backgrounds may not be currently available. Why replace your backgrou

Weekly Update - June 18, 2022: Meet features, YouTube corrections, farewell to IE

Happy Father’s Day weekend to all you dads out there! This week there are updates for Google Meet, YouTube, and AdSense; another shift in focus at Facebook (make it like TikTok!); say goodbye to Internet Explorer; and think about AI sentience. Note that next week’s edition will be posted on Sunday, as I will be at the Google Product Expert Summit in New York City (yay!). Subscribe to continue to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox. What do you think about livestreaming? Join me on Sunday, June 19, on Twitter for #OnEBoardChat about livestreaming and community building. Discussion starts at 11AM Pacific time/6PM UTC, and everyone is welcome to participate. Follow the conversation live on Twitter or check my profile to see the questions. End of an era: Goodnight Internet Explorer As of this week, Internet Explorer 11 is officially retired and no longer supported . It’s not fully gone - Chromium-based Microsoft Edge has IE mode that should let some websites designed for IE

Weekly Update - June 11, 2022: Meet for Edu, Pixel phone features, Apple WWDC

This week there are new iPhone and Mac features announced at the Apple WWDC, new Google Pixel phone features, new features coming to Google Meet video calling (at least for education accounts) and more. Subscribe to continue to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox. Apple WWDC Announcements Here are some feature highlights from Apple’s announcements. You can learn more about the new Mac hardware here . My favorite announcement (as a non-Apple user): easily using your iPhone as a webcam. That would be very cool if Pixels and Chromebooks could work together that way. Shared tabs in Safari , so you can share your browser tabs with friends, family or work colleagues. Live Captions will caption audio live on FaceTime, videoconferencing, streaming media content, or phone call. There are two new Google Lens-like features. Live Text translates text live from the camera. Visual Look Up lets you tap and hold on the subject of a photo, then lift it from the background to place in

Weekly Update - June 4, 2022: Meet + Duo, YouTube Shorts Analytics, Pride and more

This week the big news is that Google’s two video calling services, Duo and Meet, will be merging. As a Meet and Duo user I’m actually looking forward to this update, assuming it goes as described. Mobile video is where it's at, with easier to find YouTube Shorts analytics data, and a bunch of new features coming to Facebook and Instagram Reels. Plus there are updates for AdSense Publishers, Twitterers, Redditors and more. Subscribe to continue to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox. June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month Come Through! for PRIDE 2022 on YouTube : Come Through! For Pride Shorts Challenge (see the link for details), YouTube Pride destination (with history, “ Pride Anthems ” playlist on YouTube Music Pinterest inspires you to be who you are through “We Belong Here” campaign for Pride : highlighting Pinners, We Belong Here landing page. Pride Together: Celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community on TikTok : highlighting LGBTQIA+ community members and businesses, LA Pride s

Google Duo is merging with Google Meet

Google's two video platforms, Duo and Meet, are merging. Duo won't be losing any features, but will get Meet features, and will be renamed Meet on mobile. Meet will still be Meet on the web and in Gmail.  It's complicated.  Why the change? Google says : As part of our continued investment in helping people stay connected, and to adapt to evolving user needs, we’re upgrading the Duo experience to include all Google Meet features. This integrated experience will provide users with a single solution for both video calling and meetings with people across their lives.  Google has promised that current Google Duo features will not be going away .  Dave Citron, director of product for Google's video products,  explained to The Verge : “The Duo mobile app had a lot of sophistication, especially under the hood [...] Especially in emerging markets, where network connectivity was sparse or highly variable.” On the web, it’s dif