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Weekly Update - November 19, 2022: YouTube Studio mobile updates, YouTube comments on TV, more Twitter tumult

This week it was beautiful to watch the launch of NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the Moon, as part of their Artemis I mission. It’s in preparation for Artemis II, which will bring people back to the Moon. So exciting.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, YouTube has some nice updates for creators, with new features in the YouTube Studio mobile app and the ability to engage with comments when watching videos on TV. And there’s more news for live streamers, web publishers and more.

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Time to back up your Twitter data!

I thought last week at Twitter was chaotic, but this week seems to have topped it.

Close to 80% of Twitter’s contractors were fired. Contractors moderate content and review abuse reports, manage property and payroll, and other unglamorous work.

Employees were given 24 hours to decide whether they wanted to sign on for Musk’s “Twitter 2.0” vision, along with “hardcore” work hours. Most apparently did not.

Twitter offices were closed to employees through Monday, and there are concerns that traffic around the World Cup might break the site.

I’ve written up a tutorial for creating a backup archive of your Twitter data. Or watch the video.

If you want to read more about what’s happening at Twitter, these articles are a good place to start:
Where is everyone going?

The winners seem to be Mastodon and Tumblr (the site for the internet’s weirdos). Notably people aren’t talking about moving back to Facebook.
The Twitterati are also moving to new social platform Cohost, which has a bloggy feel to it. It also says it will be launching paid subscriptions and a tip jar in the near future. (There have been concerns about their terms of service).

Post is another new social platform, for “real people”, “real news”, “civil conversations”

YouTube, Twitch, and Live Streaming

The YouTube Studio app has a bunch of new(ish) features:
  • Updated Studio Mobile dashboard
  • Research in Analytics
  • Analytics by content type (longer videos, live, shorts)
  • Apply for the YouTube Partner program
  • Upload checks for monetization
  • Comment translations and smart replies
All YouTube channels now have an @ handle (which you can change). They are now slowly rolling out handles for @mentions in video titles and descriptions, in comments, in Shorts, on your channel page and more.

You can now view and interact with comments when watching YouTube content on your smart TV or game console.

Cute new emotes for YouTube live chat, available (to some) in YouTube Studio.

YouTube Creator Liaison has tips for good video titles.

YouTube has a new sound when it starts up on TVs. They share how it was designed.

Earlier this month, Twitch rolled out “Guest Star”, which allows invited guests to join a broadcast using only their browser. To celebrate, it’s Guest Star Week highlighting live streams using the feature for guests.

Twitch reduced its minimum payment amount for Partners and Associates to $50. This has been rolling out gradually for 4 months, and is now complete and available worldwide.

Gamers can now live stream from their Xbox console to Twitch, Lightstream and Streamlabs without having to use a special app.

Event platform Hopin is becoming a multi-product suite, with Hopin Events, Session (lightweight interactive webinars and meetings), StreamYard On-Air (live stream to your own website), StreamYard live streaming (to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and so forth), StreamYard Podcasting, Streamable (video hosting), and a “Project C” that hasn’t launched yet.

Meta

Facebook profiles are getting a little less personal. Fields for sexuality, politics, religion and your address are being removed. Facebook says it’s to make the platform easier to navigate. It’s noted that this is also pretty sensitive personal information, so it may be better for Facebook not to collect it.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta has fired a couple dozen employees and contractors for unauthorized takeovers of user Facebook and Instagram accounts, sometimes in return for bribes.

Web Publishing

AdSense has updated search styles for for Custom Search Ads.

You can now add Newsletter Subscription and Link in Bio “blocks” to your WordPress theme.

Productivity

You can now drag text and images from Google Slides into other apps on Android devices.

Note-taking app Evernote was acquired by small app firm Bending Spoons. It’s not clear if and when that will bring changes to the service.

More

As I note in my Twitter backup tutorial, all the links you share become t.co redirects. Turns out there are some Easter Egg t.co URLs. Try opening t.co/elon ;-)

You know when you are viewing someone’s social media profile, and they have a link to a page with a list or grid of their relevant links? Linktree is one of the most popular services to create a link page like that. And now they are introducing Payment Lock. That allows creators and marketers to monetize their links. Some of the suggested uses are for selling access to music or videos, recipes or business plans.

I may be too old and unfashionable to be a YouTube Shorts creator.

This week Meta released a large language model for science called Galactica, designed to “summarize academic papers, solve math problems, generate Wiki articles, write scientific code, annotate molecules and proteins, and more”. After just three days Meta shut down the demo, after it came under intense criticism for creating authoritative-sounding content with false and biased information.

Mia Sato @ The Verge writes about “The unbearable lightness of Buzzfeed

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.

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Spam and personal attacks are not allowed. Any comment may be removed at my own discretion ~ Peggy