Peggy K's Creator News

Happy last week of April! This week there are lots of new features for audio and video creators. Facebook announced it is going all-in on social audio, with creator tools, audio rooms and podcasts. Google Meet has a new improved desktop design. And YouTube channels on mobile are getting a new “About” tab design. My top update this week is a slew of major improvements coming to Google Meet on the web in the coming weeks. Redesigned navigation bar, now black instead of white, and with repositioned buttons. All the controls are now along the bottom. See your presentation while you are presenting, either large or as part of the tile grid. Your own video feed can be a tile in the grid, a smaller floating picture that can be resized and repositioned, or turned off entirely Pin multiple video feeds. Automatic light adjustment for participants that are underexposed. Video backgrounds (distracting?) Autozoom, which keeps you positioned in your feed, even if you are moving around. This feature...

Happy Earth Week! I hope you can take a little time this week to enjoy nature, if only in your backyard. This week Blogger announced its Follow By Email service will be shut down, YouTube announced “Shorts” are getting their own shelf on channel pages and is testing “dubbed” videos, and Chrome has a new and improved PDF reader with presentation mode. And while this week was short on updates, there are a few more tips and tutorials. New tutorial : Learn how to export your Blogger blog’s email follower list from FeedBurner . Use this to help you migrate your list to a different platform before FeedBurner’s RSS to Email service is turned off in July. Earth Day is April 22. This year’s theme is “ Restore our Earth ”. Events will be mostly virtual yet again this year. Here’s how you can explore the Earth from home: Google Earth now lets you see a timelapse of changes with satellite photos covering the past 37 years. Go to goo.gle/timelapse to view highlights an...

FeedBurner has announced that it will no longer support email subscriptions as of July 2021. As FeedBurner powers Blogger's FollowByEmail gadget, that will also stop working.  FeedBurner is a free Google service that let you customize your RSS feeds. It currently also provides feed analytics and - notably - has an RSS to Email service, emailing new posts in your feed to your subscribers.  FeedBurner was founded in 2004 and acquired by Google in 2007, almost 14 years ago. The Blogger FollowByEmail gadget was launched in 2011. That means many bloggers have a blog email list that is decade old.  Some of you are reading this post in an email. I haven't figured out an alternative email platform, but I will make an announcement when I do and you will be given the option to re-subscribe. I expect it's going to be a painful transition to a new platform. Watch the video for a brief overview and tutorial on how to export your email subs...

I hope you all are enjoying Spring! My excitement for the week was getting my first COVID vaccine dose. If you are eligible, and appointments are available, I urge you to do it too. Otherwise this was a quiet week. There are a few updates for video creators, webmasters and more. Mark your calendar StreamYard’s Live Stream Success Summit is April 15. Register for free to attend the keynotes, visit the expo “booths” and network with other attendees. The event is on the Hopin platform, which acquired StreamYard in January . Google I/O is coming soon. Try the punchcard puzzles to discover the date, or (now) just visit the Google I/O homepage . It’s virtual and free for everyone. If you register, you will get access to live Q&As, reserve live Workshops and Ask Me Anything Sessions, and chat inside “I/O Adventure”. YouTube and Video YouTube is filtering potentially hurtful comments . They can be found on th...

Happy Easter weekend! I hope yours is sunny and safe. No fooling!   Google and most other big tech companies skipped April Fool’s Day again this year, which was probably a wise decision. There were a few cute jokes , like this amazing Canadian Space Agency discovery . Google did post some - no joking - productivity tips . More content can be monetized on YouTube: Some content that previously would only show “limited” ads can now be fully monetized . That includes some content with moderate profanity, showing violent interaction with law enforcement, humorous adult content, educational content on drug use, or discussion of controversial issues. Free accounts can continue hosting long Meet video calls: If you have a free personal Google account you can continue hosting Meet video calls up to 24 hours long until July . Originally free accounts were to be limited to 60 minute calls starting March 31. Another step away from classic Hangouts: This week Ha...

YouTube has updated the advertiser-friendly content guidelines so that some content that previously would have limited advertising can now be fully monetized. That includes some content with moderate profanity, showing violent interaction with law enforcement, humorous adult content, educational content on drug use, or discussion of controversial issues.  More specifically, the following types of content may be fully monetized now:  Using moderate profanity (like "shit" or "bitch") in the first 30 seconds of the video.  Adult themes in a humorous context, such as dating or romance jokes with sexual innuendo. Educational, documentary or news content that includes violent interactions with law enforcement.  Educational, documentary or news content that includes drug-related content. It cannot "glorify" drug use. "Non-graphic, objective discussions" of controversi...

Google announced today that free personal account users can continue to host Meet video conferences up to 24 hours long through June 2021. We’re continuing unlimited #GoogleMeet calls (up to 24 hours) in the free version through June 2021 for Gmail accounts → https://t.co/fqBTmoNPBW pic.twitter.com/Ax0fmbRvqr — Google Workspace (@GoogleWorkspace) March 30, 2021 Update June 2021: One-to-one Meet video calls will continue to have the 24 hour time limit . Group Meet video calls are restricted to 60 minutes in countries where Google Workspace Individual is available  (as of December 2021 that's Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the US). Google Workspace Individual is a paid subscription with advanced Meet, Calendar and Gmail features. In countries where Google Workspace Individual has not launched yet, group Meet calls will continue to have a 24 hour limit.   Google Meet video calls were made available to free personal accou...