Brands have been capable of working with third parties to activate shoppable videos within YouTube, but now YouTube has rolled out its own channel gadget for consumer goods brands to sell their products on YouTube.

Audi has developed its own augmented reality (AR) platform called Audi Vision that uses image recognition to identity and play digital content on mobile devices whenever someone points their camera at an Audi logo. Audi also intends for the app to launch AR experiences whenever a user points their smartphone at print/outdoor advertising and at the point of sale.

Most important to marketers is updates to Google+, the company's social network. Google+'s layout is getting updated to focus more on visuals like images and is launching a new photo editing toolkit for users of the service. The company is also rolling out an update to Google Hangouts which makes it the default messaging service across all of Google. Google Hangouts will now replace Google Talk, Google Messenger, and Google Video Hangouts.

John Battelle's CM Summit has released "Behind the Banner," an animated visualization of how today's advertising technology ecosystem works. The video not only serves as an effective piece of content marketing for the CM Summit but also helps people make better sense of how the current digital advertising ecosystem behaves. The video walks viewers through how a cookie works to how programmatic media buying takes place online.

Disney has created a 3D printed storm trooper figure from Star Wars that will feature the guest as the face of the figurine. As part of Disney's Star Wars celebrations, the company is featuring the product at "D-tech weekends," and guests have to book the 3D printed figure experience in advance.

ABC News has released a new social TV app for the Web called Social Soundtracker. The web app debuted for the White House Correspondents' Dinner broadcast, and let's users share emotional reactions to broadcasts directly to their friends on Facebook. Viewers click an emoticon to signal their reaction to the show. There are five options to choose: clap, boo, laugh, gasp, and aww.

As part of the 10th anniversary of Tokyo's Roppongi Hills mega-complex, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra created a projection mapping experience over a miniaturized version of the city. Visitors to TokyoCitySymphony.com can view the three different projection experiences (Future City, Rock City, and Edo City) and then create a personalized version of the music and projection mapping using their keyboards.

Budweiser Brazil has announced the "Buddy Cup," a smart glass that connects people as friends on Facebook whenever they toast their glasses together. Users can connect their Facebook accounts to the glasses whenever they attend a Budweiser hosted event, concert, or other live activation by scanning a QR code on the bottom of the glass with a Budweiser app. After connecting their Facebook accounts, an LED indicator on the glass confirms when users have been connected after toasting.