To finish up the year, I published the last of my 2023 roundup, looking at the
updates for Google Chat and Meet.
And next week, I expect everyone will be back to business!
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Creator Weekly Live 🔴
What do you think about this week’s updates? This week is a special holiday edition!
Join the live Creator Weekly on Sunday, 10:30AM Pacific time (6:30PM UTC).
Join me live or watch the recording.
And next week, I expect everyone will be back to business!
Top news and updates this week
- Google is testing Tracking Protection in Chrome
- Twitch updated its attire policy to prohibit implied nudity
- Facebook is pushing people to save their Link History in the app
- A new AI tool in Google Slides lets you remove image backgrounds
- Read on for details and additional updates!
Subscribe to get the Creator Weekly by email.
Creator Weekly Live 🔴
What do you think about this week’s updates? This week is a special holiday edition!
Join the live Creator Weekly on Sunday, 10:30AM Pacific time (6:30PM UTC).
Join me live or watch the recording.
Take this week’s quiz ✅
Start the year
off right by testing your knowledge in two quizzes!
Which product did Google shut down in 2023? Take the quiz
Do you know what content is on the For You shelf of your YouTube channel? Take the quiz
StreamYard has a new feature to stream and record vertical video.
Lightstream launched simulcasting from your console.
Google Search Central recapped their top updates from 2023.
WordPress.com shared their year in review, and there were some nice updates, including built-in newsletters, a new stats page, improved theme editor, ActivityPub integration and more.
It’s Bloganuary! WordPress has a new blogging prompt every day in January. You can find it in your WordPress dashboard, or find the prompts on the Bloganuary blog.
Casey Newton @ Platform writes about Substack at the Crossroads. He said he would be meeting with Substack’s leadership to talk about newsletters that appear to violate their written policies that have not been removed. It will be interesting to hear the outcome of that.
Google started testing Tracking Protection in Chrome - blocking 3rd party cookies by default - this week. Will it cause confusion? Will it hurt advertisers? I suppose that’s what testing is for.
X is adding back headlines to shared link previews. The headline appears in small text on top of the thumbnail image. This should be an improvement, especially for those folks who just drop a link without an explanation.
X shared usage stats using their “total user seconds” metric, which seems to have been chosen to make it hard to compare to older stats or other platforms. Andrew Hutchinson at Social Media Today took a close look and it appears that either people are spending less time on the platform or there are significantly fewer active users than there used to be. Taking that together with other recently shared metrics, he says “it’s hard to distinguish whether Musk is being deliberately deceptive, or he genuinely doesn’t understand the numbers before him.”
X has a new verification tier for small businesses that is $200 per month, rather than $1000 per month.
Microsoft Teams announced a bunch of updates. If you are a Teams user, check out the announcement.
JR Raphael of Android Intelligence has 10 Android tips you shouldn’t miss.
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 the December 23 edition here or check out the 2023 year in review.
Image via Canva. Free for commercial use, no attribution required.
Which product did Google shut down in 2023? Take the quiz
Do you know what content is on the For You shelf of your YouTube channel? Take the quiz
From Me
Finishing up the 2023 Year in Review, I wrote up an overview of Google’s 2023 updates for Chat, Meet, Currents and Jamboard.To Try
If you are using a personal Google Account and have opted in to Google Workspace Labs, you can now remove image backgrounds in Google Slides (slides.google.com).Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates
Twitch updated their attire policy to prohibit implied nudity. That means no nudity (or pretend nudity) with censor bars. Read the entire updated policy.StreamYard has a new feature to stream and record vertical video.
Lightstream launched simulcasting from your console.
Web Publishers and Search
Are you confused by the AdSense Consent Management Platform requirement that goes into effect on January 16? AdSense has a brief video showing what you need to do.Google Search Central recapped their top updates from 2023.
WordPress.com shared their year in review, and there were some nice updates, including built-in newsletters, a new stats page, improved theme editor, ActivityPub integration and more.
It’s Bloganuary! WordPress has a new blogging prompt every day in January. You can find it in your WordPress dashboard, or find the prompts on the Bloganuary blog.
Casey Newton @ Platform writes about Substack at the Crossroads. He said he would be meeting with Substack’s leadership to talk about newsletters that appear to violate their written policies that have not been removed. It will be interesting to hear the outcome of that.
Google started testing Tracking Protection in Chrome - blocking 3rd party cookies by default - this week. Will it cause confusion? Will it hurt advertisers? I suppose that’s what testing is for.
Social Media
Facebook has a new Link History option that lets you “conveniently” save all the links you clicked in the Facebook app in one place. Also, not surprisingly, that information will be used for ad targeting.X is adding back headlines to shared link previews. The headline appears in small text on top of the thumbnail image. This should be an improvement, especially for those folks who just drop a link without an explanation.
X shared usage stats using their “total user seconds” metric, which seems to have been chosen to make it hard to compare to older stats or other platforms. Andrew Hutchinson at Social Media Today took a close look and it appears that either people are spending less time on the platform or there are significantly fewer active users than there used to be. Taking that together with other recently shared metrics, he says “it’s hard to distinguish whether Musk is being deliberately deceptive, or he genuinely doesn’t understand the numbers before him.”
X has a new verification tier for small businesses that is $200 per month, rather than $1000 per month.
More AI Updates
Microsoft has a stand-alone Copilot app for Android.Communication and Collaboration
Google Meet lets hosts live stream meetings within an organization. There are several improvements to that experience. Hosts can now add or start live streaming from inside a meeting. And viewers can see the number of other viewers, choose to join the live stream rather than the call, and view the meeting from inside the Meet mobile app for iOS or Android.Microsoft Teams announced a bunch of updates. If you are a Teams user, check out the announcement.
More Reading
Tech entrepreneur and writer Anil Dash wrote for Rolling Stone about how he believes The Internet is About to Get Weird Again. I hope so!JR Raphael of Android Intelligence has 10 Android tips you shouldn’t miss.
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 the December 23 edition here or check out the 2023 year in review.
Image via Canva. Free for commercial use, no attribution required.
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