Peggy K's Creator News

Google+ started off 2018 on a roll.  Both the Android and iOS were updated to try to bring feature parity between the different platforms, including bulk moderation tools for communities and the ability to delete, report and block spammers in a single step. The Android app was completely rewritten to use Google's latest app infrastructure. There were also new feature updates across platforms, including the ability to subscribe to Highlight notifications for Communities and Collections . Many of the new features were aimed at business users, such a dedicated button to add a file from Google Drive when composing a new post, easy embedding of Google+ Community, Collection and Profile streams on Google Sites website s, and the ability to bulk add and manage members of G Suite domain-restricted Communities using Google Groups email lists . And the process of disconnecting Google+ from other Google services - started in earnest in 2015 - continued. Google My Business deleted ...

In 2018 there were big changes for creators in the Googleverse, from the announced shutdown of consumer Google+, to a tougher-to-join YouTube Partner Program, "smart" automatic ads from AdSense and much more. Here are my top stories for Creators for 2018: Google+ for consumers will shut down in April 2019 While there were a number of new features launched in 2018, none of them will matter to most users, as Google+ for consumers will be shut down in April 2018. G Suite customers will continue to be able to use Google+ as an internal "collaboration" tool with some sweet-looking new features. Get all the details about Google+ 2018 updates. YouTube Partner Program raises eligibility requirements YouTube started the year with new eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program. Instead of 10,000 lifetime views, your channel now needs at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time over the past 12 months. There is also a more stringe...

No big round-up this week, as most of the tech world is on holiday, and I'm working on my end-of-2018 round up which I'll post on January 1st. There was a little bit of news this week: You can start the new year with a 30-day activity challenge in the Google Fit app . It starts January 1st, but you can sign up today.  Get Google Fit for your Android phon e to get started. Google celebrated their Webmaster Product Experts . If you are a webmaster who enjoys sharing your expertise, check it out.   The camera on your phone is getting smarter. Google uses computer vision techniques and machine learning to power features like  "Top Shot" on the Pixel 3 that saves and analyzes frames before and after your shutter press  to capture just the right moment. And  Google Lens lets you "search what you see"  and copy text in images. Follow the links to learn how it works.  Speaking of "smart" image processing, if you are a dog person, rather than a cat...

We’ve passed the darkest day of the year, and so, hopefully, no more bad news for at least a few weeks. This week there is more information for Plussers, new features for YouTubers, and more. Plus some holiday fun! If you celebrate Christmas, may it be merry! There is now a timeline for the shutdown of the Google+ API . While it will stop working entirely on March 7th , there may be “intermittent failures” as early as January 28th. If you are a blog owner or webmaster, it’s time to remove any Google+ plugins such as Google+ badges, +1, share or follow buttons, and embedded posts. The API will also stop working for social media management services like Buffer and Hootsuite.  Romain Vialard has s hared instructions for exporting all the data from a Google+ Community and importing into Firebase .  The New York Times reported that Facebook “gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effective...

Update March 10, 2019: The Google+ API has shut down, and buttons, badges and embedded posts no longer display. If you have code for these on your website or blog, now is the time to remove it. Update February 28: See the latest update with changes that may mitigate the effects for some developers. The Google+ API will shut down on March 7 with "intermittent failures" starting as early as January 28. The  "sunsetting" of Google+ for consumers is scheduled for April 201 9, so it will outlive the API by a few weeks . Google has updated the Google+ Platform Developer site with more details about the shutdown of the platform over the coming months. The Google+ APIs will be completely shut down and cease to function March 7, 2019. There may be "intermittent failures" as early as January 28th. This will not only affect developers, but also website owners who have added Google+ integration features to their site.  And if you use social media management...

This week there was more bad news, with the announcement that Google will speed up the shutdown of Google+. There were also some positive updates for YouTube Creators, so there’s that. This week started with the unwelcome announcement that in November a change to the Google+ API could have revealed the private information of 52.5 million users. They have subsequently decided to shut down the Google+ API within 90 days, and sunset the consumer version of Google+ in April, rather than August. Despite the accelerated shutdown Google+ unfortunately hasn’t provided us consumer users (or developers) any details about what’s going to happen exactly over the coming months.  Meanwhile Google+-friendly social media management platform Friends+Me has been actively developing a Google+ Exporter, which allows you to download your Google+ posts in a format that can be imported into WordPress or Blogger . The free version lets you download up to 3000 posts. I haven’t tried it personally, bu...

YouTube has launched a "Video Self-Certification" pilot program that allows some YouTube Partners to rate their own videos against the advertiser-friendly  content guidelines when they upload. YouTube has also provided examples of non-advertiser friendly content, so all Partners can more easily determine if a particular video should be monetized. Assessing Advertiser-Friendliness If your YouTube channel is in the YouTube Partner Program, you are expected to make sure that your content complies with the  Community Guidelines , the  AdSense Program Policies ,  and also is "advertiser-friendly". Some content may be allowed under the Community Guidelines, but might not be something advertisers want to be associated with. If that's the case, YouTube recommends you turn off ads on that video. If YouTube detects that a video is probably not advertiser-friendly, you will see a yellow monetization icon in your video manager, which indicates it is probably not s...