Peggy K's Creator Weekly
Posts
Creator Weekly: Google Vids, Ghost Recommendations, YouTube Brand Deals

Creator Weekly: Google Vids, Ghost Recommendations, YouTube Brand Deals

Peggy K
November 09, 2024

This has been a week, and I’m ready for a social media vacation. Maybe. Although I’m not sure I could stand the FOMO.

It seems most companies have taken a bit of a break (or have been otherwise occupied) this week, so there aren’t a lot of big updates. But even so, there are updates and tips for video creators, bloggers, and social media denizens.

And if you are near New York City or Berlin, and use AdSense on your own website, be sure to check out the upcoming in-person events.

Top news and updates this week

Google Vids is now available to most Google Workspace users (and personal accounts with Workspace Labs).
AdSense in-person events in New York City and Berlin.
Eligible YouTube Partner Program participants can now use Brand Partner Video Linking for Shorts to connect with Brands.
CapCut Commerce Pro is a new suite of marketing video creation tools (not free though!).
Share music from Apple Music or Spotify to TikTok. And save songs from Instagram to Spotify.
Ghost launches a platform-independent recommendation system based on Webmention.
Google Photos has replaced the Sharing page with Updates.
Find people to follow on Bluesky from a directory of Starter Packs.
Threads hit 275 million active users, despite not being a good place to follow breaking news.
X is rolling out its modified blocking, where the blocked person can see the blocker’s public posts.
Microsoft has new AI features in Paint, Notepad, and Microsoft Word (which you can disable).
Plus articles about the Internet Archive, free images, journalism and more.

Read on for details and additional updates!

Creator Weekly Live 🔴
What do you think about this week’s updates? Join the live Creator Weekly on Sunday, 10:30AM Pacific time (6:30PM UTC).

Take this week’s quiz ✅
What do you know about news on social media?

New Tips and Tutorials

A quick video tip: Add a cover image to a Google Docs document. It’s part of a longer Google Docs tip I shared on OnEBoard’s Tech Topic show.

To Do & Try

AdSense is hosting two in-person events: November 19 in New York City and November 25 in Berlin. “Learn how to optimize your websites, content and traffic, increase ad viewability and implement effective ad strategies to boost your earnings.”

Google Vids is Now Generally Available

Google Vids (vids.google.com) is the latest addition to the Google Workspace suite for business and education, and it is now available to more Workspace editions. Google touts its AI features, but you can use it to create videos without those tools.

If you have used Google Slides, the video editing interface will look familiar. Vids also includes:

Video templates
Stock clips
Animations
Stickers
Photo effects
Music
Sound Effects
Recording Studio that lets you record yourself (with a teleprompter) or create a screen recording.
Access your images and videos in Google Drive and Google Photos.
Collaboration and access options similar to Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Slides.

And, of course, Vids includes Google Gemini AI-powered tools you can use to create a draft video, voiceovers, remove backgrounds, or generate images.

If you have a personal Google Account you can access Google Vids with Google Workspace Labs. It’s also available to select Google Workspace editions.

Google notes that the generative AI features are available for a “limited introductory time period”, through at least December 2025.

More information: Get Started with Google Vids

Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates

YouTube is launching Brand Partner Video Linking for Shorts. This allows creators to send a message to advertisers about their brand-related content, which allows the advertiser to choose to promote the video in their Google Ads campaigns and see video metrics. Eligibility requirements are 4,000 subscribers and your channel in the YouTube Partner Program. Advertisers can also send a link request to creators with a notification that will appear in YouTube Studio on both desktop and mobile.. Learn more about this launch from Creator Insider. Learn more about linking YouTube videos and Google Ads accounts.

The YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program launched in India. Eligible creators can tag products from Flipkart, Myntra and more. For eligibility, your channel must be in the YouTube Partner Program, have at least 10,000 subscribers, and not be Made for Kids. The program is also available in the United States, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Learn more.

YouTube is experimenting with a “most relevant” comment filter for the new Community tab in YouTube Studio (formerly the Comments tab). Learn more from Creator Insider.

Twitch may be moving toward its own “adpocalypse”. Back in 2017, YouTube was in crisis as advertisers upset by their ads appearing with unsuitable content stopped buying ads. Their solution was to implement significantly stricter monetization policies. Now Digiday reports that groups are pressuring advertisers to stop buying ads on Twitch because of anti-semitic content on the platform. It’s probably not unrelated that Twitch just started requiring streamers to label political or “sensitive” content. But it’s not clear if that will be sufficient.

CapCut now offers CapCut Commerce Pro, a suite of e-commerce video creation tools aimed at small businesses and creators. You can create marketing videos with one click, use AI-powered editing tools, add shoppable links, commercially licensed image and video assets and more. It is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Brazil, the Philippines, and Indonesia, starting at $21 per month.

TikTok launched a new music “Share to TikTok” option. Share a track, album or playlist from Apple Music or Spotify to the TikTok For You Page, Stories or DMs (TikTok Messages). The shared music links back to the original source.

Web Publishers and Search

Ghost has a new platform-independent recommendation system. When people subscribe to your content on Ghost, they can see your list of recommended newsletters and sites, no matter what platform they are on. If the site supports one-click recommendations, your subscribers can immediately subscribe. And if they do, the publisher will be notified, if possible. It’s similar to old-fashioned “pingbacks”, using the Webmention protocol. There are plugins to implement Webmention on many platforms (like WordPress and Drupal), and services like brid.gy you can use to connect Webmentions to Blogger, Medium, Tumblr, Reddit, Mastodon and more. (Yes, I’m trying this)

From the Press Gazette: Publishers hooked on Google Discover traffic risk race to the bottom. “Reliable Discover optimisation tactics centre around content focusing on people’s needs and interests, while providing real value and insights.”

Photos and Image Design

The Google Photos app has a new Updates page, replacing the Sharing page.This shows updates to shared albums, conversations, Memory updates, and storage updates. These are all mixed together with updates in chronological order. Shared albums can now be found on the Collections page. If you want to see all your conversations, you can find those through your Photos settings, which is available through the Menu on the Updates page.

Bluesky: Someone has created a searchable Bluesky Starter Pack directory. Starter Packs are user-created collections of profiles and feeds, usually on a theme. Do a search for your interests (SEO, biology, artists, streamers, tech bloggers, journalists, Swifties), open an interesting looking Starter Pack and either follow individuals or the whole list. Note that the search isn’t “smart”, so you may need to search for related keywords separately. If you are interested in tech news, check out the Tech & Society, Tech Media, Tech Starter Pack, Best Tech Skeeters. What Bluesky doesn’t have is a lot of brands, influencers, and celebrities. It also doesn’t seem to have much discussion about business.

You can now save songs you find on Instagram to Spotify.

Buffer interviewed the Threads team, who confirmed that posts with links are not downranked.

The Threads non-chronological “For You” feed failed on election night. This seems like a problem across platforms that don’t make it easy to follow profiles or hashtags chronologically.

Threads reached 275 million monthly active users, up from 150 MAU in April.

X is finally rolling out its modified blocking, where blocked accounts can now see the posts from the people who blocked them. This makes it easier for someone you blocked to keep tabs on what you are posting (that’s literally the reason X gave). As Andrew Hutchinson at Social Media Today points out, that additional friction of needing to create a new account to follow someone who blocked your original account does actually make a difference for regular users who are being harassed or stalked, so this change is not a good one.

More AI Updates and Tips

Google Gemini on the sidebar of Docs, Gmail, Sheets and Drive is now available in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, in addition to English. This is available for personal accounts with Google One AI Premium or Google Workspace with a Gemini add-on.

Microsoft Word for Windows now has Copilot AI enabled by default. This can be an issue if you work with confidential documents. You can turn this off by going to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Connected Experiences (yes, that setting is buried deep). Thanks to Sascha Stronach on Bluesky for this tip.

Microsoft is rolling out generative AI tools to classic Windows apps Paint and Notepad. Paint is getting generative fill and generative erase and an update to image creator. Notepad will let you rewrite content, adjust the tone and modify the length of text. This is currently rolling out to Windows Insiders on the Canary and Dev channels.