Video and YouTube
YouTube is
expanding the availability of Channel Guidelines to more channels. This lets you write commenting rules for your own channel that people must read and acknowledge before posting a comment. Currently the guidelines are only visible in the YouTube app or on the web for Live Chat.
Spotify is
opening up their Video Podcast platform to more creators. It’s now available to all Spotify Anchor creators in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. If you already are producing audio podcasts for Spotify, you can use their bulk replacement tool to replace audio episodes with videos. And new
Riverside.fm “online recording studio” integration makes creating easier.
You can now
buy Twitch gift cards to redeem for bits, subscriptions and gift subscriptions to support your favorite streamers.They are available from Amazon in Australia, Canada, UK and the US. Here’s the
US Twitch Gift Card purchase page (that’s totally an affiliate link and I might get a cut if you click and then buy something on Amazon).
Video Meetings
There’s a helpful update for
Google Calendar that lets you
set up your Meet meeting in advance. That means the host can turn meeting safety features (like present lock and chat log) on and off, designate co-hosts, and set up breakout rooms before the meeting starts. Note that co-hosts and breakout rooms are only available to limited types of paid Google Workspace accounts.
Social Media
Now all
Instagram users in the US can
add product tags to feed posts. Tag a brand, then tag a product. Your followers can click the tag to learn more about the product.
In addition to product tags,
Instagram is also introducing Enhanced Tags (that let you label yourself, e.g. as “photographer”) and
improving ranking to promote original content. CEO Adam Mosseri says “Creators are so important to the future of Instagram, and we want to make sure that they are successful and get all the credit they deserve.”
Snapchat is unexpectedly booming with a growing user base that is now larger than Twitter’s. According to Big Technology’s Alex Kantrowitz the take home lessons are: messaging is more important than Stories; creating a solid Android app helped drive international use, Gen Z prefers intimate group chats to broadcasting their lives, and AR is fun.
Web Publishers
WordPress’s VideoPress got a few updates: higher resolution videos, adaptive streaming, resumable uploads, and support for captions and chapters. VideoPress is available for self-hosted WordPress sites or at WordPress.com with the WordPress Pro subscription plan.
Privacy
Google is
updating the cookie consent banners you see if you are in the European Union to comply with regulators. Soon, if you are in Europe, you will see new options if you access Google Search or YouTube while signed out or in Incognito mode that lets you easily Reject All or Accept All cookies.
Productivity
Google
shares useful (and fun) features in the official
Google mobile app: copy the text in your handwritten notes (if your handwriting is good enough), find a song by humming a tune, follow your interests, see creators and objects in AR and more.
Motherboard
tried Google Docs new “assistive writing” feature. They found the AI-driven warnings and suggestions for wording changes were “annoying as hell”. It looks like many of the suggestions were bad: words aren’t just interchangeable. And it isn’t clear what the system is doing when it suggests an alternative word is more “inclusive”.
If you use a Chromebook, be on the lookout for the
new Featured and Established Publisher badges in the
Chrome Web Store. Those highlight extensions that follow technical best practices and developers with a verified identity and a positive track record respectively.
Interesting Reading
Karen Hao in Technology Review reports on “
a new vision of artificial intelligence for the people”. In a remote rural town in New Zealand a couple is using AI to help revive te reo, the Māori language. And they are working to make sure any benefits derived from this data are passed back to the Māori people. “Data is the last frontier of colonization.”