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Weekly Update - October 1, 2022: New Google Search features, Stadia's demise, YouTube Shorts editor update

 

New this week: Google makes it easier to have your personal info removed from Search, Discussions and Forums in the Google Search results, Stadia’s demise, new voiceover option in the YouTube Shorts editor and more.

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A more useful Google Search (and Maps)

At the Google Search On event this week, Google announced new features for Search and Maps. There are some useful new features for users, and potentially some opportunities for creators and business owners. Keep in mind that many of these new features are only available on mobile devices, and may start out US only.

Here’s what’s new in Google Search::
  • The Google mobile app has a new “Results about you” tool, that lets you find and request removal of results with your home address, phone number or email. And soon you will be able to get alerts when there are new search results with your personal information.
  • Check the “About this result” information to see if a search result is personalized. It will have a link to your account settings.
  • Google will show “Discussions and forums” posts for some search results. Available in the US, on mobile, in English.
  • Google Lens Multisearch (take a picture, then add text to search) is expanding to “Multisearch near me”. Grab a picture of a hamburger, then search nearby to find a place to buy one. This will roll out in the US in English later this year.
  • Google Lens automatic translation can better blend translated text in with images in the background.
  • Google will start showing (probably) relevant content as you are typing your search query. You will also see keyword and topic options. This will be available “in the coming months”.
  • Online restaurant menus will be more reliable, as Google combines information from menus on a restaurant’s website and user-posted information.
  • Start your search on mobile with the word “shop” to get a shopping feed for the search item. If you are shopping for clothing, you can “shop the look” to see coordinating items. Plus you can view some items in 3D, see trending items, find buying guides and reviews, and get personalized results. Note that most shopping updates will start out US only.
  • Google will provide details that let you make more sustainable choices for travel and shopping.
  • Coming in 2023: translated news headlines. Google will translate French German and Spanish headlines into English.
Plus updates in Google Maps:
  • You will be able to get a “vibe check” for a neighborhood from Local Guides contributions. Available “in the coming months”.
  • Photorealistic aerial views of more than 250 landmarks around the world. This has launched on mobile.
  • “Immersive view” lets you explore in Maps on mobile. It’s almost like being there. It will be available for San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo.
  • Search with Live View. Search for businesses or services near you and hold up your phone to see pointers to the search results, so you can start walking.

Stadia Shutdown

Stadia, Google’s cloud gaming service, launched with much hype in 2019.

While there are devoted fans, it never really caught on. It requires a very fast internet connection, uses tons of bandwidth, some promised features never quite materialized and - perhaps the biggest problem - there have been issues with the available games.

So it wasn’t that surprising that Google announced the service will be shutting down in January.

From what I’ve read, Google is trying to do right by Stadia users. It will refund any hardware purchased through the Google Store and any games purchased through the Stadia store. There’s a FAQ with more information. Game saves can be exported using Google Takeout.

And the underlying technology will probably be used for other Google services:

The underlying technology platform that powers Stadia has been proven at scale and transcends gaming. We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google like YouTube, Google Play, and our Augmented Reality (AR) efforts — as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed. We remain deeply committed to gaming, and we will continue to invest in new tools, technologies and platforms that power the success of developers, industry partners, cloud customers and creators.

YouTube and Video

The YouTube Shorts editor will now let you add voiceover narration and original sounds. It’s currently only available on iOS devices.

YouTube will start sending a notice to commenters who have had their comment removed. Learn more with Creator Insider.

If you have the Community Tab on your YouTube channel, you will be able to add filters, text and stickers Learn more from Creator Insider. Note: Your channel must have at least 500 subscribers to be eligible for the Community Tab.

Twitter has a Tiktok-like update. You can easily expand Tweeted videos into full screen mode on your phone. From there you can scroll up to view more videos. Popular videos will also be featured on the Explore tab, making them easier to find.

Social Media

Meta has made it easier to switch between Facebook and Instagram profiles, as long as they are in the same accounts center. (Meta really wants to associate all your information). Plus they are making it easier to sign up for multiple accounts on both platforms.

Tumblr has introduced post labels. If your content includes drug and alcohol abuse, violence or sexual themes, the label lets readers filter out that content if they choose. The posts can be hidden, blurred or viewed normally, based on the user’s choice. This brings back “smutty fanart” and other 18+ content to the platform.

Meetings

Microsoft Teams has a cool feature that lets you integrate a Teams video feed with a powerpoint presentation. That lets the presenter appear in an overlay headshot.

Zoom now offers the option for hosts to designate sign language interpreters. Pulse it has updated profile cards with more participant information. Plus there are more updates for Zoom’s whiteboarding option, easier to set up Zoom events and more.

Account security

Google Accounts Product Expert Somnath has a helpful overview on how to set up 2-step verification on your Google account. Even if you have 2SV set up on your account, you should take a look to make sure you have set your backup options.

More

Andy Baio at Waxy has an interesting article about what he calls AI data laundering”. Academics and non-profits create data sets with images and video collected from public sites without the creators’ permission, claiming it’s OK for educational purposes. But the legality is murkier, as tech companies then use those datasets to train AI for commercial projects.

What sources do they use? Some popular sets include images and videos from Flickr, Shutterstock, YouTube and more.


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 by RODNAE Productions on Pexels. Free to use, no attribution required.

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