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Updates arrive for Google Docs & Sheets for Android, Drive on the web

Google is rolling out updates this week for Google Docs and Sheets for Android as well as Google Drive on the web, the company announced in two separate blog posts today.

For Sheets, the update brings the ability to “add new and reply to existing comments,” while the updated Google Docs for Android app gets the ability to see suggestions and comments when in the app’s Print Layout view. “resolve, close, accept, or reject those comments and suggestions—making it simpler to move between their desktop and mobile devices.”

Google also highlighted improvements to editing charts in the Sheets app on Android:

…if a user a selects a single cell and inserts a chart, we’ll automatically expand that data selection to include the immediately surrounding cells. This will make it easier for users to create robust charts with relevant information. In addition, when an employee creates a new chart, they’ll now see three recommended chart types, which we’ll suggest based on the data they’ve selected.

And lastly for Sheets, users will start to notice the 400 new fonts Google began rolling out to Sheets on the web this week.

As for Google Drive, the web app gets improved organization with new smarter sorting in the app’s ‘Recent’ view:

The new sorting experience removes the existing sorting dropdown options (‘Last modified,’ ‘Last modified by me,’ and ‘Last opened by me’) and replaces them with a dynamically-generated view based on the actions of the person using Drive. Items will continue to be segmented into time-based sections (‘Today,’ ‘Earlier this week,’ etc), and will now indicate whether each item was opened, modified, or uploaded by the user directly in the UI. The smarter sorting ensures that items acted upon by the user are more likely to be shown than items acted upon by other collaborators.

The updated Google Sheets and Docs apps are rolling out now.

Google’s Android and Chrome lead comments on Apple relationship, China, Google Play ads

Google’s Sundar Pichai recently sat down with Forbes to talk about the Mountain View company’s ambitions in China, its relationship with Apple, and what its overall vision looks like. Some interesting quotes from Google’s Android and Chrome head have surfaced as a result, and among other comments, Pichai took a moment to respond to constant criticism from Apple that Google is in the business of monetizing its users. Pichai also touched on Google’s aspirations in China as well as the sponsored ad program it is testing in Google Play…


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Yahoo Android app adds local news, comments, & new side-swipe navigation

Yahoo announced an update to its Yahoo Android app today that adds local news, commenting, and UI tweaks to the company’s app for accessing news and other Yahoo services.

Want to know more about what’s going on around you? Today we’re bringing local news to your fingertips with the Yahoo App. As you move around the country, you’ll be able to see what’s going on in your area.

In addition to local news stories for users in the US, readers now have the ability to comment on articles:
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Founder of Luxottica Leonardo Del Vecchio finds Google Glass ’embarrassing’

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Image via WSJ

The founder and chairman of Google’s biggest and most important Google Glass partner, Luxottica, says that he would actually be embarrassed to be “going around” with the Mountain View company’s wearable device on his face (via WSJ). Why might this be interesting? As you may recall, Google made a partnership with the huge Oakley/Ray-ban parent company earlier this year and is supposedly planning to eventually release frames in collaboration with them.


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YouTube working to fight spam in new Google+ comments, bulk moderation tools coming soon

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YouTube has been getting a lot of backlash since introducing its new Google+ powered comment system earlier this month. Despite some very vocal users not exactly liking the change, Google provided an update on the new comment system last night and confirmed it’s here to stay. In a post on its YouTube Creators Blog, the company explains that it’s working to combat spam in comments and will soon introduce new bulk moderation tools for creators.

Since we launched the new comments experience on YouTube two weeks ago, we’ve received a lot of feedback from creators on the increase in comment spam. While the new system dealt with many spam issues that had plagued YouTube comments in the past, it also introduced new opportunities for abuse and shortly after the launch, we saw some users taking advantage of them.

To combat the users “taking advantage” of the new system, YouTube is implementing the following updates to help with spam: 
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Poll: Do you like Google+ comments on YouTube?

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As news spread this morning that one of the original YouTube founders, Jawed Karim isn’t fond of Google+ YouTube comments, it begs the question what others think. The introduction of the new comment system led Karim to post his first comment on the site in 8 years:

“Why the fuck do I need a google+ account to comment on a video?”

Now, at first glance I’d say I agree with him, it just seems like another opportunity for Google to push its social media service right under a nose. On the flip side, there’s little argument that YouTube’s comment section is a black hole of the internet. If there’s even a remote possibility that Google+ can improve the quality of the conversation on YouTube, I say hell yes.

It remains unclear is Karim is truly the man responsible for the comment or if someone hacked his account. With the news that Feedly suddenly backtracked using Google+ authentication based on initial feedback, the question remains whether or not Google is making the right move pushing their service on YouTube?

So what say you, is Google+ the right comment system for YouTube? Would you like to see them spread to a blog like this one?

YouTube co-founder not feeling the new Google+ comment system

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Earlier this week Google officially started rolling out a new commenting system on both the desktop and in its Android app. The new system is integrated with Google+ with the goal of finally creating a “better commenting” system on YouTube with more relevant comments and new moderation tools for creators. A revamp of YouTube’s commenting system was a long time coming, but YouTube’s own co-founder isn’t too happy about the change.

Posting his first comment in nearly eight years to the same account that uploaded the first video ever to the service, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim is wondering why he needs a Google+ account to comment on the service he helped create:

“Why the fuck do i need a google+ account to comment on a video?”

It’s unclear if Karim is truly behind the comment, or perhaps it’s a joke from someone that got a hold of his account. Either way, Karim is not the only one that isn’t too happy about having to link a Google+ account to YouTube in order to continuing commenting. 
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YouTube begins rolling out new comment system featuring Google+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGp8Z8Yb28

There’s little question we all would love to see an improvement in the quality and flow of YouTube video comments. That’s why the introduction of a “better commenting” system is beginning this week is cause for hope. Diving right in, we’ll take a look at what Google suggests as the three main takeaways with this comment system:

  • Comments you care about move to the top: You’ll see posts opportunities the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles. You can still see the most recent comments by switching from “Top Comments” to “Newest First.”
  • Join the conversation publicly or privately: You can choose to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone, only people in your Circles, or just your bestie. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so you can easily follow conversations.
  • Easily moderate comments: If you also post videos on your channel, you’ll have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans.
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YouTube to transition to Google+ powered comments and discussions

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As we are all well aware of, YouTube comments are often some of the oddest things on the web, but as announced in a blog post today, Google is finally looking to improve the quality and relevance of comments. On the Official YouTube Blog, the company has announced that starting this week, all comments on channels with the discussion tab will be transitioned to Google+ discussions. All videos on YouTube will receive Google+ comments later this year.

This means that you will now see comments and discussions that are most relevant to you at the top of the page. For example, comments from people you know, follow, or engage with on Google+ will be shown first. This also somewhat enforces a “real name” policy on YouTube.

This also means that you will be able to create a discussion in the comments section of a video, but only with a limited circle of friends from Google+. These discussions and comments will only be visible to who you choose to share them with, not the public.

  • Comments you care about move to the top: You’ll see posts at the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles.
  • Join the conversation publicly or privately: You can choose to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone on YouTube and Google+, only people in your Circles or just your bestie. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so you can easily follow conversations.
  • Better ways to moderate comments: You have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans. These can help you spend less time moderating, and more time sharing videos and connecting with your fans.

Google+ powered comments will rollout to channel discussion tabs this week and all videos later this year.


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