Peggy K's Creator Weekly
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Peggy K's Creator Weekly: Search Console Recommendations, Instagram Insights, Google Photos Collections

Peggy K's Creator Weekly: Search Console Recommendations, Instagram Insights, Google Photos Collections

Peggy K
August 10, 2024

I’ve been watching a lot of the Olympics this week, and the variety of skills on display is humbling. I’ve been thinking about the artistic swimming (formerly synchronized swimming) event, where the team makes a formation under water to launch one teammate into the air (see at about 2:36 in this fascinating underwater upside-down video). There is probably a metaphor there about everyone working together to support one person so that the entire team wins. But mostly I just think “Wow”!

This week there are updates for live streamers, video creators, website owners, social media and more.

Top news and updates this week

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has died
Google Search Console will show actionable recommendations for your site
Instagram Insights will show Reel “Views” rather than “Plays”
Twitch users aren’t fans of the new mobile app
Twitch launched its new DJ Program
Twitch launched Creators Clubs for IRL and DJ streamers
YouTube is simplifying channel customization settings
YouTube is testing picture-in-picture live midroll ads
Google Photos is replacing the Library with Collections for easier navigation
X sued the advertiser group Global Alliance for Responsible Media
X lets you sort replies by relevant, recent or likes
Instagram lets you post up to 20 images or videos
Facebook offers training to remove the first Community Standards violation warning
Google Meet rolling out AI-powered “Take notes for me” to business and education users

Read on for details and additional updates!

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To Do & Try

Update your Gravatar: Automattic’s Gravatar lets you create a profile that you can use for commenting. That not only works on WordPress blogs, but also other forums, blogs and sites like Slack, GitHub and ChatGPT. If you haven’t checked yours recently, go to gravatar.com/profile to update your profile information, verify your social profiles, add photos and links and get a custom .link profile URL (free for the first year). Once it’s set up, you can use it as your “link in bio” on social media. Learn more about Gravatar features. Get your free .Link domain. You can see mine here.
The Outside Lands Music Festival is August 9-12, and you can listen free on Amazon Music or the Amazon Music Twitch channel.
If you like “Where’s Waldo” and find-the-object puzzles, check out Google’s Olympics-themed Paris 2024 puzzle.

Susan Wojcicki (1968-2024)

As I was finishing up this edition, the news broke that Susan Wojcicki died after living with cancer for 2 years. She was only 56, but leaves behind a massive legacy at Google and YouTube. Google literally started in her garage, and she helped launch Google’s advertising business with AdSense, DoubleClick, and AdWords, before becoming YouTube’s CEO in 2014. She stepped down as YouTube CEO in February 2023.

Neal Mohan, current YouTube CEO, wrote:
“Today we lost a teammate, mentor and friend, [Susan Wojcicki]. I had the good fortune of meeting Susan 17 years ago when she was the architect of the DoubleClick acquisition. Her legacy lives on in everything she touched at Google and YouTube. I am forever grateful for her friendship, guidance and impact on my life. I will miss her tremendously. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones.”

What people are saying: Kara Swisher, Rene Ritchie, Todd B., Louis Gray, Hank Green, Harry McCracken. I’m sure there will be more over the weekend.

Google Antitrust Case

This week Google lost big in court, with a judge ruling it is violating US law “by maintaining its monopoly in two product markets in the United States—general search services and general text advertising—through its exclusive distribution agreements” (“DOJ antitrust chief is ‘overjoyed’ after Google monopoly verdict”). Read the decision here.

I’ve read a number of hot takes (“what does this mean for SEOs?”), but the hearings to determine what changes would need to be made don’t start until September. And it’s been estimated that after that, the appeals could take as long as five years. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Google Search Console Recommendations

If you have your own website or blog, you should have it set up and verified in Google Search Console. Search Console lets you see how your site is performing in Google Search and will let you see if there is a problem with crawling or indexing pages on your site.

But all the data can be a bit overwhelming.

This week Google is launching Search Console Recommendations on the Overview page for your site. This will include specific recommendations for improving your site’s presence in Search based on indexing, crawling and serving data for your site.

Note that you may not see Recommendations for a while. Google is slowly rolling out this feature “over the coming months”, and they note: “even after complete rollout, we'll only provide recommendations when we have a recommendation available for your website.”

Instagram Insights Switching from Plays to Views

Instagram is rolling out a new primary metric to Insights. It will now show “Views” across all types of content, including Reels, live streams, photos, carousels, live streams, and Stories. Reels “Plays” will be relabeled as “Views”, which is meant to make it easier to compare numbers across content. “Impressions” will no longer be included in post Insights.

Note that Instagram’s help center says you need a “professional” account to see Insights, but I see Insights on my Reels even without a pro account.

And what is an Instagram View? “Views will measure the number of times a reel started to play or replay and the number of times a non-reel appeared on a person’s screen.” The numbers may be higher than previously, because replays are counted in the total.

Is this good? I’m not an Instagram Creator, so it’s hard for me to say, but my sense is that because Reels automatically start playing in the feed, Views may not be the best metric to understand how interested people are in your video content.

YouTube creators are truly spoiled by the amount of data and insights available in Studio Analytics.

Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates

The new Twitch mobile app is available, and apparently people hate it. It’s designed to help new users find new content, with a default “Discovery” feed, clips feed, and Stories. That is annoying long-time users who want to go straight to the streamers they follow, and that option is a bit buried.

Twitch has launched its DJ Program, with a catalog of songs that can be streamed legally. Monetizing creators have a percentage of revenue set aside to help cover licensing. Zach Bussey notes that if you opt in, you lose Clips and VOD (archived videos on demand).

And Twitch also launched Creators Clubs, which lets Affiliates and Partners connect with other streams who have similar interests. They are starting out with only IRL (“in real life”) and DJ clubs, with private communities on Discord, events and workshops.

YouTube is simplifying channel settings in YouTube Studio, so the Branding and Basic tabs will be combined and the Layout tab will be the Home tab. (More info from Creator Insider) This is part of YouTube’s simplification of channels, which makes the Home tab optional.

YouTube is testing picture-in-picture live midroll ads in the “coming months”. This will show a midroll ad without disrupting the live stream. If you see this, send feedback to let YouTube know what you think. If you are a live streamer in the YouTube Partner Program, you can set your channel’s live stream midroll ads preferences by going to YouTube Studio > Live Control Room (direct link) > Settings gear (bottom left). The choice is to either allow YouTube to insert midroll ads, or to insert them manually.

YouTube is testing a “Brainstorm with Gemini” option in YouTube Studio (learn more from Creator Insider).

Web Publishers and Search

Medium has expanded their Partner Program to 77 new countries. There’s also an improved Partner Program Dashboard to view earnings and payments (which have a $10 minimum).

Tumblr just launched threaded comments, so you can reply to a reply.

Photos and Image Design

Google Photos is introducing Collections. Collections replaces the Library, and is meant to be easier to navigate. It will have all your Albums in one place, both those you create and those shared with you. It will also have shortcuts to navigate to People & Pets, Places, Documents, Favorites and Trash. The Utilities folder was removed, and the various utilities are in different locations now. Get the details.

Lindsey Gamble reports: VSCO Announces Client Spaces, A Private Space For Creators to Share Work With Their Clients

This is purely anecdotal, but my Threads “For You” feed has been flooded with “just left X” posts, particularly from history and science communicators and journalists. I’m sensing a major shift, as if whole networks are moving. Why is this happening? My guess is that it’s partially that X’s Elon Musk has promoted more extreme content and misinformation, especially inciting riots in the UK and has attacked watchdog organizations. My activity on X has dwindled down considerably, and you can connect with me on Threads.

So what’s happening on X? They sued the non-profit advertiser organization Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), claiming it was conducting an “illegal boycott” by discouraging members from advertising on X. In response, GARM will be shutting down, at least for the time being, while its parent organization goes to court. Social Media Today points out this is just one of multiple lawsuits against organizations that track hate speech and misinformation on social media. Will this encourage more brands to advertise on X? That seems unlikely, when the site’s owner is one of the problematic accounts.

On X you can now sort post replies by relevant, recent or likes. This is good if you don’t necessarily want to see all the blue-check replies at the top.

Instagram now lets you post up to 20 images or videos in a carousel (up from 10). How many people will actually take the time to view all of those?

Facebook will now allow Professional Mode users that violate the Community Standards for the first time to complete in-app education to have their warning removed for some types of violations. Serious violations (such as sexual exploitation, sale of high-risk drugs, glorifying dangerous organizations). A second violation within a year adds a permanent warning, and subsequent violations can result in less reach, limited monetization or more serious consequences. YouTube instituted a similar option for Community Guidelines warnings last fall.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook started as friends and family connections, has shifted to content creators and entertainment, and “In the future, a lot of it is going to be AI generated.” Social Media Today’s Andrew Hutchinson notes: “It takes time, effort, and commitment to learn the skills required for storytelling, which is the basis of any creative effort. And while AI tools will enable more people to create more types of content, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be any good.”

Evan Prodromou is the co-creator of the ActivityPub protocol that connects platforms in the Fediverse. He was interviewed by Doc Pop in the WordPress Fediverse Files series. (Shoutout to the RSS feed analogy!) Watch the interview. Yes, there is an ActivityPub plugin for WordPress or if you use WordPress.com, you can simply enable ActivityPub federation in your blog settings.

Mashable reports that “Reddit CEO hints that subreddit paywalls are on the way”. Would this be a bad thing? Not necessarily, if the idea is subreddits launched specifically as paid private communities. But right now there aren’t any specifics.

Mike Masnick, founder and editor of Techdirt, and author of Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech has joined the Bluesky board. Bluesky says “Mike has been an early supporter of Bluesky’s mission to create a global, open social network, as full of possibility as the early web. In the past, we’ve gone to Mike for inspiration and advice already, and formalizing that relationship is the natural next step.”

On LinkedIn brands can “sponsor” other users’ newsletters (with approval), as well as their own, by promoting them with ads. This doesn’t appear to be related to paying those users (which is what I think of when I hear a newsletter is “sponsored”).

Communication and Collaboration

Google Meet will soon roll out AI-powered “Take notes for me”. This will only be available for Google Workspace accounts with Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Education Premium, or AI Meetings and Messaging add-on.

Today I learned that Microsoft Teams has an algorithmic Discovery feed to “help you stay on top of conversations you might otherwise miss”. The good news is that you can now turn that off.

Mozilla wants you to try Firefox! Firefox tips and tricks for creatives: Picture in Picture (watch video while doing something else), Eyedropper tool that gets the color hex code from any image, a PDF editing tool, and Screenshot tool.

AI Updates and News

Matt Levine @ Bloomberg on big tech almost, but not quite, acquiring AI startups: AI Companies Almost Get Bought

Before you use ChatGPT or Gemini to summarize an article for you, read this from Gerben Wierda: When ChatGPT summarises, it actually does nothing of the kind.