Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, March 31

• YouTube creators have complained about declines in ad revenue: Some YouTube creators might get less money from Google, at least temporarily, as the company adds new controls for advertisers in the wake of an ad controversy that erupted two weeks ago. A number of big-name advertisers suspended ads on YouTube last week and the week before after discovering their ads were making money for videos containing hate speech or supporting terrorism. Google has responded by promising greater transparency and saying it will be more aggressive in ensuring brand safety of ad placements. “If you’re seeing fluctuations in your revenue over the next few weeks, it may be because we’re fine tuning our ads systems to address these concerns,” reads a YouTube community manager post from Thursday. The changes stem from tweaks to the ads system, rather than any revenue loss that might have come after advertisers pulled their business, according to a source close to the situation. YouTube could lose $750 million in revenue this year over advertisers halting business, according to analyst firm Nomura Instinet. Some YouTube creators appear to have lost ad revenue altogether, which the post addresses: “If you think your video was demonetized in error, request an appeal by clicking on the yellow $ icon next to the video in Video Manager.”

• Elon Musk’s SpaceX makes history by launching a ‘flight-proven’ rocket: From a distance, it looked like any other rocket at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, a soaring tower of thrust and power, ready to blast off into orbit. Upon closer inspection, though, there were signs of something different about this rocket. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster was not as clean and shiny as they usually are. It was just a touch dull, showing, ever so slightly, the scorched wear from its first launch, almost a year ago — a “flight-proven” rocket, as Elon Musk’s SpaceX likes to call it. On Thursday evening, almost one year after it had previously flown the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX launched it again. The launch, at 6:27 p.m., marked the first time that a rocket had flown a payload to orbit, landed vertically and then been reused. The flight signaled an important landmark, capping years of work and some fiery theatrics of boosters screaming back from space only to explode in failed attempts to land on ships at sea. In December 2015, SpaceX was able to land its first rocket on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral. A few months later, the company did it again, this time at sea. Since then, it has made landing rockets as exciting — or more so — than the 3-2-1, bone-rattling liftoffs of fire and smoke that have reignited interest in space exploration. After the successful launch, an emotional Musk called it “an incredible milestone in the history of space.”

• Embattled Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey leaves Facebook: Palmer Luckey is out at Facebook. The Oculus co-founder, who helped kickstart the recent VR craze with a prototype headset built out of his parents’ garage, has left the company after a year that heralded the launch of the consumer Oculus Rift but also a number of lawsuits and a pro-Trump meme scandal. Oculus has confirmed the report of Luckey’s departure, first spotted by UploadVR, in a statement to TechCrunch that reads about as much as a eulogy as it does a farewell. In an era filled with seemingly countless examples of “bro” founders emerging from top universities and starting companies with their frat brothers, Luckey appeared to be a breath of fresh air. The home-schooled college dropout was a tinkerer who frequented message boards asking for help taking apart and rebuilding game consoles in his parents’ garage before expanding to a deep interest in 3D screens and head-mounted displays. This fascination eventually brought him to encounter legendary game developer John Carmack, who helped the young Luckey gain the attention of the gaming community after showcasing one of his VR headset prototypes at a major gaming conference. The excitement led to a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that later brought the interest of some major investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and Formation 8. Facebook acquired Oculus in March of 2014 for $2 billion. Luckey has not commented on what exactly he earned from the deal, but Forbes pins his net worth at $730 million. Luckey’s departure follows a lengthy period of absence from public view brought about by a Daily Beast piece revealing his involvement and funding of a pro-Trump troll group called Nimble America. News of his support came during a time when very few figures in Silicon Valley were publicly showing support for candidate Trump, the most notable being Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook who started the VC firm Founders Fund, which backed Oculus, as well.