Google Maps Updates Break Websites Worldwide and Instagram takes on Snapchat | Get Fact Up #41

Thanks for joining us for the 41st instalment of Get Fact Up! Wow - 41 episodes.

Today we interrupt this program for some important announcements. Google Maps Updates Breaks Websites Worldwide! And Instagram Shamelessly takes on Snapchat. How do they do that you ask? Find out what has Snapchats authorities so up in arms.

And just quickly we thought we'd add in that we love the new Facebook Update to their Business Page layout - We'll show you a few pics!

Please, grab your coffee and enjoy the 41st week running of Get Fact Up!

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GOOGLE MAPS UPDATES BREAK WEBSITES WORLDWIDE AND INSTAGRAM TAKES ON SNAPCHAT | GET FACT UP #41

- Good day, Australia. I'm Chris Hogan, founder and CEO of MeMedia. It's time to Get Fact Up. Today we interrupt this program for some important announcements.

A Google Map update breaks websites worldwide, and Instagram shamelessly takes on Snapchat. In a recent Google Maps API update to version 3.3.1, many websites worldwide started breaking with their embedded maps plugins, which meant some rather ugly and unhelpful error messages were appearing on websites worldwide.

Pretty sure this is where I'm supposed to be, but doesn't look right. Google have buried some important information in their developer's blog about this Maps update and how you might be affected in the not too distant future. When you're re-embedding your Maps API, you may need to understand that it will only be free if your page is seeing 25,000 visits or less per day. That is for the map views on that page. Anything more than that, and you could be up for paying for the Google Maps API service.

Yoast have come out with a great article which helps every Wordpress user understand why it is your maps may have broken and how to fix it. And if all this is too confusing for you, well, you know we're here to help.

Now let's jump onto Instagram. This August, Instagram introduces Instagram Stories, a new feature that allows you to share everything that's happened in your day, and not just the photos that you want to appear in your profile. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools.

The photos, videos will appear after 24 hours and won't appear on your profile, grid, or in feed. You'll see stories from people you know in a bar at the top of your feed from your best friends to your favorite popular accounts. When there's something new to see, their profile photo will have a colorful ring around it.

You can even choose to feature a particular part of your story by posting it on your profile. Instagram Stories will be rolling out globally on the iOS and Android platforms over the next few weeks. Wow, that was such a cool idea, Instagram! In fact, I think we may have seen that before.

Oh yeah! It's just like Snapchat. You guessed it. And they've received a bit of backlash about it, too. A lot of people are saying, "Take it down! "Take if back!" We'll, we at MeMedia actually applaud Instagram for having a crack and integrating a new feature into a platform that people are already very familiar with. That's actually gonna make a huge difference to the amount of users they keep on their platform.

Instead of them having to feel like they need to experience this Snapchat-like feature on Snapchat, they can experience it on a platform they're already familiar with. And above all, the navigation and usability is actually a little bit better on Instagram according to the video that we've just shown. And also, CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom actually gave Snapchat all the credit for the idea publicly in one of his posts. Good on you, Instagram, and we'll see what happens when Instagram Stories come to you.

And just quickly, we thought we'd jump onto Facebook, where they've updated their business page layout, which, we had to say, we absolutely love. It's far more user friendly for business page managers, and navigating the business page while you're not in business manager mode is so great as well. What up, Facebook? I think you've made usability much easier for our admin teams.

Well, that's all we got time for this week, Australia. Thanks very much for listening to Get Fact Up. We'll see you next week where we get back into our usual program and deliver some awesome marketing or web development advice just for you.