It’s been a quiet week for product updates. But even so, there are updates and tips for YouTubers, web publishers, Meet meeting participants, and more.

Read and comment at peggyktc.com

Join this week's #OnEBoardChat

Sunday I will be hosting the #OnEBoardChat Twitter chat on the topic of community moderation. In particular how off platform behavior or events should influence moderation decisions, both for individuals and businesses or organizations. Join us, or follow the discussion here.

Some reading to spark discussion: 

• Anil Dash: “Community safety and ignoring the world”

• YouTube: “Preventing harm to the broader YouTube community”

• Twitter: “Our ongoing approach to the war in Ukraine”, particularly “To address the harmful dynamics created by blocks and limitations on online services, we will not amplify or recommend government accounts belonging to states that limit access to free information and are engaged in armed interstate conflict – whether Twitter is blocked in that country or not.”

I hope you can join us in the discussion. 

YouTube and Video

YouTube is adding new filtering options on a channel’s videos tab.You will be able to filter by video type:  short, live stream, or other. They are also removing the option to sort videos by oldest first. If you want to find a channel’s oldest video, you will have to scroll through the entire list. All the details on Creator Insider. 

Facebook is enabling the ability of third-party apps to share videos directly to Reels on Facebook.

Social Media

Twitter was all abuzz this week, with the reveal of Elon Musk as the company’s largest shareholder, and his appointment to the Twitter board of directors. But the big news is that Twitter is working on an edit button.

Twitter also changed the way embedded tweets display. Now if a Tweet is deleted, the embedded Tweet shows a blank box. Previously, the original unformatted text from the deleted Tweet would still display. This is a significant change, and I think I like it. Twitter  noted this is to “better respect when people have chosen to delete their Tweets.”  It is bad for journalists who have embedded Tweets as part of their reporting. If the account that Tweeted is suspended, now all those Tweets disappear. Reporting with Tweets will have to account for that now.

Twitter has also rolled out an improved way of displaying image alt-text and image descriptions.

(Yes, it's all Twitter news this week)

Web Publishers

Google Search Central has a tutorial for using a bubble chart in Data Studio to understand search performance. You can use this template in Data Studio to get started.

WordPress launched WordPrompt to spark creativity. There is one WordPrompt word of the month, and the challenge is for all WordPress bloggers to post something inspired by that word. You can find posts tagged WordPrompt in your WordPress reader. This month’s word is “Green”. 

Google Meet

Occasionally someone will inadvertently neglect to sign out when a virtual meeting is over, their audio or video still streaming. Google Meet is introducing a new feature to fix that. If you are the only person in a meeting, there will be a prompt after 5 minutes, asking if you are still there. You have two minutes to respond or be automatically removed from the meeting.

If there is a reason to be in the meeting alone -- for example, if you joined early or are practicing a presentation -- you can disable the prompt in the meeting’s settings. 

Productivity

Google now lets you “multisearch” from images on mobile devices. Starting from the Google app, you can search from an image from your phone or a photo you take with Google Lens. Swipe up and tap the + button to add text search terms. Examples of what it can do: search from an image of an orange dress, then add “green” to the search to find the same dress in green. Or search from an image of a rosemary plant and add “care instructions” to the query to find out how to take care of rosemary plants.  This is available as a beta in the United States in English.

Did you know you can animate objects in Google Slides presentations? Video demo.

A picture is worth a thousand words. In Google Docs you can now use emoji reactions to give feedback, rather than having to write a comment.

More

Google has finally decoupled emoji updates from Android system updates. That means you can see and use the latest emoji even if you have an older Android device.

If you have a legacy G Suite account, Google has extended the deadline for the automatic upgrade to a paid plan to June 1.  If you do not want to upgrade your plan, you can stay on a minimal free plan. However, you MUST join the waiting list for that before June 1. Learn more.

Pink Floyd  (not including Roger Waters) has released a new song in support of Ukraine, accompanying a video of Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk. Pink Floyd’s David Gilmore’s daughter-in-law is Ukrainian, so this is especially personal for him. 

Image: Sunflowers by Alexas_Fotos on Pixabay. Free to use commercially.