It's the Third Thursday of the month and continuing the theme of exotic locations I am in Italy.

Links referenced...

• Codegent selected for the BBC Digital Design Roster
• The new 4Music site
• Our Learn App Series (table below)

Since Google+ was unveiled on June 28th 2011, its propagation has known no boundaries. It’s everywhere - on the internet, on mobile, on tablets - has attracted 18 million users in less than a month and a billion shares per day. People are begging for invitations, a tactic that increased interest dramatically, just as it worked for Facebook’s launch.

With "+1" popping up everywhere, it looks like it soon will be naturally integrated into the landscape. We’re discovering exactly what it offers and are clicking everywhere like thrilled kids in front of a smart new toy, ready to compare and dissect. But we must face it…

It’s the same, but slightly different

Google + is the social networking side of Google and has many traits that we are familiar with from other social networks.

First, it allows you to rate webpages and share them with your contacts like Stumble Upon. Sites recommended by your friends will have a lot more value and will make your browsing easier and safer.

Second, you can chat on Google+ and have video conferences like on Skype. You can also leave messages, share pictures, albums, videos and links like on Facebook and Twitter.

If you are on the go, you can check-in and be joined by your friends as per Foursquare. You could even turn your Google+ feed into a blog, not far from what Tumblr offers.

You start to notice that Google+ has borrowed pieces of everything and mixed them together. This is networking made easy because it’s all on the same platform and this is how it's different.

A friend of mine used to complain about how much work she had to put into her social networking life. Updating her news on Twitter and Facebook, writing articles for her blog, adding pictures on Instagram, it’s a real workout considering she is also a busy young mother.

Google+ gives you an easier life. The all-in-one package rather than needing to download applications, register, familiarise yourself and post across multiple networks, wasting time that could be spent at a good gig enjoying life.

The plus of Google+

Not only is Google+ combining many networks, it also brings all your contacts together. AH! At last. Drag and drop your contacts into organised ‘circles’ to avoid an embarrassing post meant for your friends being read by your boss, and instead of running between Facebook (friendship orientated) to Twitter (work and acquaintance related) all you have to do is select a circle before posting. You have your family circle, your work circle and any more you want in order to be extra accurate when posting: "Geeks", "BFF", "Band of ducks"… be creative!

More seriously, this circle concept is particularly interesting when working on team projects. Imagine being able to create a Project Team circle that everybody can join without having to download anything. Members can share ideas, pictures, videos and comments on this platform and make your project progress faster. Easy.

In the past, we’ve had clients thrilled by the idea of putting social media icons all over the place. Well now, one will be enough: Google +. However it does raise the question will the two main social networks, Twitter and Facebook, survive?

The interface of Google+ looks like an improved version of Facebook with even more features. I believe people will choose simplicity and shift to Google+ unless Facebook comes up with a brilliant idea. It would be time for them indeed: studies have revealed that people are closing their Facebook accounts, tired of it and its privacy issues.

On the Twitter side, the concept of tweeting small and quick notes is not clearly present on Google+, but it does give you the ability to follow someone who is not following you and allows you to express yourself without the 140 characters restriction.

Google+ has taken the best of both Facebook and Twitter, improved them and left the inconveniences on the side. The Huddle to chat with everyone and receive push notifications to keep the conversion alive is brilliant, the multi-face video chat gives everybody a presence and invites people to talk and exchange, the capacity of Google+ to provide analytics of your profile page is more than interesting from a business perspective, the smartphone app is clear, smart and ergonomic and eventually, you'll click on "sparks" to check the latest news organised by theme.

Trends show that the use of Google Mail is falling as everybody uses the Facebook message tool instead. Well, we can safely say that Google is making an attempt to inverse the trend with Google+. A massive attempt.

There is no + without - 

Google+ brings together all we ever wanted, plus what we didn't know we wanted. It’s exceeded expectations and is a huge step forward for Google. Soon enough it will be one of the most used social networks as it's based on the empire of Google and these sorts of things help.

The dark side of having an all-in-one platform launched from the top of Google is that it will increase the supremacy of Google massively. Why is that so wrong? Well, history has proven that when there is one person leading without equal competitors their attitude changes from helping to using. See Facebook and their privacy deficiency as an example.

The fact that the success of Google+ is massively due to its parent Google doesn't seem to be fair for all the other social networks which have built themselves with blood, sweat and tears. They will be overtaken by somebody using their ideas. Yes, Google+ took other social networks' ideas and brought them together and this is called plagiarism. Google+ plagiarises Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Skype and Foursquare.

Supremacy and plagiarism are not the only minuses. My life is on my mobile and since I bought my iPhone I rarely open my laptop in my free time and do everything on the go while travelling. Excited by the Google+ site, I couldn't wait to try the app. But there was no Google+ iPhone app or this is what I thought. The app for iPhone was actually only available on the Apple website, not on iPhones app store, confusing 28% of smartphone users. This is what I call a minus.

To sum up, Google+ is a sexy project on a simple and smart interface providing an intuitive experience in a clean and ergonomic environment. It is pushing social networking forward with a more human and logic profile. However, Google+ might weaken some other social networks and use its supremacy for its own sake like eBay in the e-commerce field with its always higher fees. We also have to consider that people might get bored by the monotony of using only one social network. It’s just a supposition and only the future will tell us, but for now, give it a go: https://plus.google.com/up/start/.

In creating the new 4Music site recently we ran into the age old problem of how to best crop uploaded images. Traditional cropping tools tend to be clunky, especially when you need to crop a single image in different ways as we did.

We hit upon the idea of just allowing editors to pick a focal point on the image and having some clever little bits of mathematics sort out all of the details.

It worked incredibly well for the 4Music project so it's a technique that we plan on using on all of our sites in the future. When we get a bit of spare time we are going to release the source code so that others can make use of it in their projects too.

Check out the video to see it in action.

The worlds of TV and the internet were once quite separate but now seem increasingly converged. We can easily watch TV on our computers using tools like iPlayer and 4OD and even stream TV live to your mobile phone using services such as Slingbox. And you can send content from your computer to your TV through AppleTV or just plug your computer into one of the inputs of your TV and use your remote to flick between the TV and your computer.

But this is really only the start. This is the convergence equivalent to humans inventing the wheel. 

We see the future of TV convergence being more than TVs having an Ethernet port on their back so they can plug straight into the internet. We see convergence as meaning platforms become nothing to do with the kind of content that you can get, but more about the use case for accessing content on that device.

So everyone will watch TV on their TV sets, their computers, their tablets and their mobiles. But your reasons for watching content on a TV might be different to why you would watch on a mobile: TV might be about getting a high quality experience that you possibly share with friends or family, whilst a mobile might be for getting quick bites of information whilst on the move.

In effect, the TV screen that sits in the living room will just be the best quality output in the house but will have the same functionality as a computer in that you will be able to access apps, browse the internet and send messages. 

So what does this actually mean? 
Well, we think that TV programming won’t be thought of as something that is only broadcast to a passive audience. Having a TV show that isn’t intrinsically linked with a variety of online services will be like showing a movie with no sound. 

Examples might be that you are watching the main TV screen in your living room and the presenter mentions a Tweet that someone has written. You click on the link that appears on the screen and it opens the hashtag for that subject in Twitter. But you don’t want Twitter to obscure the main screen, so you ‘flick’ Twitter to your tablet and watch it there. Someone references a historical incident and a Wikipedia reference appears, you decide to pause the show and read the wiki entry they recommend. This is really interesting so you pull up a couple of YouTube videos and watch those. 

Your wife moans at you:
“Can you just watch the programme or watch YouTube and stop surfing, you’re doing my head in”. So you flick the YouTube stuff over to your tablet and save it to watch later.  

The TV presenter introduces a chef who is going to make a dish. You’ve always wanted to be able to cook this so you add the ingredients to your shopping basket via your Tesco app that sits in your TV tray and it reminds you that you’ve run out of beer so you quickly scan the barcode of the bottle of beer you finished earlier with your phone and that adds beer to the same shopping basket.  The programme finishes and in the break, one of the adverts is playing a tune you really like so you scan it and add it to your Spotify playlist. 

How far away are we from this Utopian world?  
Well, services like YouView are scheduled to launch next year. YouView is a tie up between BBC, ITV and Channel4, but also BT and TalkTalk. The plan is that they will offer broadband integrated digital TV with on-demand anb catch-up TV services, but will also open content out to new providers who will be able to create their own content portals. Plus application developers will be encouraged to create games, tools and other services (I’m guessing like the iPhone has done).  So you can see, we are tantalizingly close.

Is there anything we need to start thinking about now then?
The answer of course is ‘depends’. But like anything that is new, there will probably be some benefit in being an early adopter. Nobody quite knows what this will look like, even the likes of the BBC and Channel 4 who are reaching out to digital agencies for content ideas instead of just sticking to traditional TV production companies. We will all have to start thinking more about our brands in terms of richer content. But also understanding that convergence actually means many more potential touch points. 

When we talk to brands today it is so rarely that they just want a microsite to support a single campaign: now it’s so much more about trying to find a clear roadmap through the many ways in which digital will support their objectives.

I’m new to Grinds my gears, but was quick to put my hand up for a light-hearted rant about agency life, because something has really got to me this month: sales calls.

I’m one of the Project Managers in Codegent’s London office and nine times out of ten one of us will answer the phone…cue posh phone voice, ”Hello Codegent, Rachel speaking…”.

Now I’m more than happy to answer the phone to a client, someone who wants to talk to us about their digital strategy or even a colleague’s mum phoning to say hello. What I’m really fed up with is the endless barrage of people trying to sell us stuff, every single bloomin' day.

Admittedly they don’t often want to talk to me and that’s fine, no offense taken, its David. He is the chosen one, the untouchable target and just me and my handset stand in the path of victory…cue defensive mode “Who is it, where are you calling from, what’s it regarding?...”

Now I wouldn’t mind if I got Tom from the Apprentice knocking at the door using a gift as a way to get my attention. That’s innovative, yes it’s a bit cheesey, but at least shows some effort. Instead they are more like Jim, full of b*llsh*t and following the top 5 cold calling rules….cue standard responses from me…

1. Keep it casual and sound like a good friend
   You’ll have his mobile number then
    
2. "I’m calling regarding new business”
   New business for us or for you?
    
3. Say companynamereallyquickly so she can’t tell what I’m saying
   Pardon?
    
4. “I’ve sent him an email so I just want to check he received it”
   There’s a 99% he has and is still ignoring you
    
5. Be rude and aggressive and she’ll think I’m important
   (Hangs up)

These all are sure fire ways to wind me up, and not get through to David. But alas! Last week I got a call from someone who was happy to talk to me woo hoo!....

Hello Codegent, Rachel speaking

Hi I’m calling from blahblah business directory and I’d like to update your listing

OK

Is the company registered name still Codegent?

Yes

Are you still at 516 Wandsworth Road, London?

Yes

How many commercial vehicles do you have?

Seriously, that’s the third fact you have in a digital agencies listing?

(Phone goes dead)

Arggghhhh!

I’ve got a job to do and interruptions from pointless calls drive me mad. Leave me alone, let me get on with my work and if we do ever happen to need the service you are offering, we are a digital agency and pretty adept at using Google.

So if you do ever call with a valid reason and get a rather abrupt response from me, sincere apologies, I do want to speak to you. It’s just that most of the time I pick up the phone it’s a sales person wasting my time. And that folks, is what really grinds my gears.