Jeff Huber, Google VP of Local and Commerce, has indicated that Google+, at some point in the near future will include the option for business profile page. Here is his comment:
And pre-emptively answering a question — yes, we will have (smb) business profile pages on Google+. I can’t announce a launch date yet, but we want to make them *great*, and we’re coding as fast as we can.
He has additionally indicated that he will be using Google+ as his primary voice (not Twitter) and that, if we let him know, he will make invites available for the Google+ field trial to anyone that needs one.
I am not sure what I think about the idea of having a second SMB profile in addition to an already claimed Places page (it is early, I am on vacation and typing on a bad cell signal on my iPhone but wanted to get this out).
Obviously a large number of small businesses have yet to figure out Places and the idea of a second “Places” is somewhat daunting unless it is well integrated into the existing processes. In the end, I suppose that it comes down to the benefits that an SMB would derive as to whether it will be worth it. It is certainly an interesting idea.
If nothing else, Jeff putting up with my tweaks and providing this information, demonstrates the possibility of a coming transparency from the folks at Google Local (hooray!!).
Should be interesting to see how Google+ will change how businesses present themselves online.
I’d love to get my hands on a field trial of Google+.
Comment by Ryan Miller (2 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 9:39 am
Same goes for me as it is interesting for our clients and readers to know what to do. on Google+. Sounds interesting so far.
Comment by Maik (2 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 9:47 am
[...] apparently Google+ will have “Pages” for entities. Some are already making them. But according to Mike Blumenthal, Google’s head of Commerce & Local Jeff Huber says that Google+ SMB-centric Business [...]
Pingback by Google+ to Get SMB (Profile) Pages Too — July 1, 2011 @ 10:20 am
Can’t Get a Google+ Invite? Try eBay
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387963,00.asp
Comment by Colin Thomas (1 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 10:47 am
Mike – Thanks for all the great information, as usual. I would like to get a Google+ invite!
Happy 4th of July everyone!
Comment by Scott (38 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 11:07 am
[...] Place Page – actually a link to a Place Page – in Google Plus. According to Greg and Mike, Jeff Huber, GOOG’s head of Local, said SMBs will eventually have G+ profile [...]
Pingback by Google Place Pages & Check-Ins in Google Plus — July 1, 2011 @ 11:36 am
Hey Mike,
Great Job on getting an ear into the big G!
I read this morning that Google+ invites were forced to shutdown due to overwhelming demand” it seems like a good start.
It seems as though Google+ is having some great traction early on. However, I completely agree with you that few people (if anyone) will want to manage 2 separate Places profiles. Google should focus their efforts on stabilizing their Places product before adding another layer of complexity to it.
Comment by Michael Mire (3 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 11:41 am
I am not gotten an invite yet, nor do I have the time. But too me… where the rubber meets the road for Google+ is not going to be with the SEO/SEM consultants but with the average “john does” and SMBs embracing it. A lot of biz owners have trouble wading through Places let alone knowing how to claim it. So hopefully Google will use the KISS method when designing the SMB business profile.
Mike, as always thanks for keeping us updated. Have a restful vacation!
Comment by John S (12 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 12:11 pm
Mike agree with you. Having 2 biz profile pages would be confusing for SMBs and I cringe at the new level of complexities it could create for people like us.
Jeff, please focus on getting all the existing Google Places bugs and problems fixed before adding another layer of problems with a new beta profile.
But Woot Woot to for Jeff listening and communicating! I’m hopeful.
Comment by Linda Buquet (297 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 12:25 pm
[...] were hoping for: the imminent arrival of Google+ pages for entities. This was in a comment on Mike Blumenthal’s blog: And pre-emptively answering a question — yes, we will have (smb) business profile pages on [...]
Pingback by Google+ “Pages” Coming For Businesses — July 1, 2011 @ 12:34 pm
Hmmm….2 pages? For each of my clients? Will that double our pleasure or double our trouble. We’ll see.
Mike…vacation means hiding your electronic belongings.
Comment by MiriamEllis (638 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 3:13 pm
Sigh… no Google Apps or non-gmail solutions. I’m always worried now setting up profiles and such with my old Gmail ID – for fear that it will prevent me from changing later to Google Apps without losing *everything*.
Comment by Scott Clark (17 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 3:14 pm
@miriam
They are all hidden with the exception of my iPhone. Too much going on, too exciting to be totally out of the loop
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 3:45 pm
I am pretty excited about Plus, using it quite a bit already and wasnt ever a big user with facebook.
Comment by hornswaggled (2 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 8:31 pm
Google+ would make a great PR tool for SMB’s but adoption would be more profound if Google integrated Apps + Sites. Sites could really take off if Google offered a robust template gallery (Microsoft does a better job at this, look at their library offerings for docs/ppt), Google Apps & Sites just pale by comparison. I’d so welcome the engineers & designers at Google to spend a day or sponsor the whole design world to beef up their Site library with vertical templates for SMB’s.
Comment by @katsheehan (1 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 9:03 pm
I would like to get a google+ invite. Thanks.
-Subahsh
Comment by Subhash (1 comments) — July 1, 2011 @ 10:29 pm
Thanks for the info. I would like to get a google+ invite too.
-chris
Comment by chris (113 comments) — July 2, 2011 @ 4:12 am
Jeff your insight and sharing of the basic roadmap for this watershed web lifestyle tool is most appreciated… can’t wait to see what Google+ does to the interwebs for all, also can’t wait for an invite Best, Blake
Comment by Blake (5 comments) — July 2, 2011 @ 7:52 am
Yeah, two smb pages is confusing but G+ is really taking off it seems and sbm owners like me would benefit from a profile page. Maybe combine the two?
Ps, i would enjoy a g+ invite.
Happy Independence Day
Comment by Michael Thomas (1 comments) — July 2, 2011 @ 9:34 am
I have my Google+ invite but it kept telling me they were full until I used it in Chrome. I was unsure as to whether to use it as my personal profile or my business one but I hadn’t thought through the implications of effectively having two Google Places pages. I guess it will be a bit like having a Facebook Business Page for likes and a Facebook Places page for check ins, which can now be merged together…?
Mike, is it possible to get your blog updates by email? You might want to answer that when you return from vacation
Comment by Jo Shaer (43 comments) — July 2, 2011 @ 10:44 am
Hi Mike, thanks for the info on Google+ business pages. Can I get a Google+ invite please?
Thanks.
Comment by Dirk (5 comments) — July 2, 2011 @ 12:16 pm
I would like to get a google+ invite. Thanks.
-alex by kipweb.it
Comment by bovesecco alessandro (1 comments) — July 2, 2011 @ 7:20 pm
I would like to get an invite please.
Comment by John Yurcisin (1 comments) — July 2, 2011 @ 8:30 pm
Mike, thanks for the update. Google +1 doesn’t work with Google Apps, which we use and pay for. Do you know of others with this issue? Thanks!
Comment by Susan Walsh (35 comments) — July 3, 2011 @ 3:44 pm
I’m more interested on how facebook respond to this one. Google seems to be doing well in terms of creating a social product
Comment by kyle (9 comments) — July 3, 2011 @ 9:30 pm
I’d love to get an invite. Us lonely CND’s are always last on the list.
I think having a company page should be different from personal when it comes to social. Kinda like FB pages. Makes sense to me.
We’ll see how that plays out.
Getting really interesting with Google the last year.
Comment by matthew hunt (79 comments) — July 4, 2011 @ 11:05 am
I would love an invite… I’m not sure yet on how I feel about another social profile. However; I’ve got a feeling that Google + is going to be a “plus” for SMB owners.
Comment by DianiaLee (1 comments) — July 4, 2011 @ 6:42 pm
I procrastinated… now they are all backed up on the invite aspect. I suspect they will have 2 pages (Places – G Plus) for business until they figure out how to merge the data. Just makes things all the more interesting
Comment by Andy Kuiper (239 comments) — July 5, 2011 @ 3:09 pm
[...] at Google with an interface upgrade AND Google+. Jeff Huber, Google VP of Local and commerce, kept leaving juicy comments on my blog and I just didn’t want to be off the [...]
Pingback by Blogging From Remote Locales – iPhone as a work station | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search — July 5, 2011 @ 4:01 pm
@Andy do you need an invite?
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — July 5, 2011 @ 5:01 pm
I’d love to see an architecture for smbs from scratch, because I love the idea and chances Google Places provides for smbs, though I hate how Google treats the quality of its Places service. My hope for Google+ business profile pages is that all the intransparent backend and often times wrong profile merging processes come to an end.
If you deal with it in your daily business, frustration is still a nice word for all the pain in the a** you have working with the lame and buggy infrastructure that Google Places is today.
Having that clarifyed, I’m well interested in an invite.
-Nico
Comment by Nico (5 comments) — July 6, 2011 @ 1:46 pm
[...] pages, the Google equivalent to Facebook Pages, have also been promised in Google Plus, reports Mike Blumenthal, referring to a comment left by Google VP of Local and Commerce on Blumenthal's [...]
Pingback by Why is NFC in the Google Plus Android App? — July 6, 2011 @ 1:59 pm
Why would Google have 2 biz profiles – why not integrate Google Places listings directly into Google+?
I will be very difficult for SMB to maintain more profiles. They seem to have a hard time – just keeping up with the many possibilities now.
Even though – I find it very promising that Jeff is communicating through this blog!!
Comment by Rasmus Himmelstrup (16 comments) — July 6, 2011 @ 3:54 pm
Could be that Google wants to clean house (Places Database), hopefully migrate the already claimed listings and start fresh from there. I’ve always believed in the garbage in garbage out theory, the data Google imported whenever it imported it… is phone book garbage!
Comment by Dennis (48 comments) — July 7, 2011 @ 12:59 am
I would like a google+ invite as well if possible.
Comment by Sharon (23 comments) — July 7, 2011 @ 12:20 pm
For anyone that still hasn’t gotten an invite to G+, please drop a note here with your e-mail address, but in a format that’s less likely to be picked up by scrapers/spammers — something like’ myname [at] myemaildomain.com ‘
Comment by Jeff Huber (7 comments) — July 9, 2011 @ 4:41 pm
I would like a Google + invite: richard [at] richardhornsby dot com
Comment by Richard Hornsby (10 comments) — July 9, 2011 @ 5:29 pm
Hey Jeff I’d love one too.
linda [at] catalystemarketing [dot] com
THANKS!
Comment by Linda Buquet (297 comments) — July 10, 2011 @ 4:00 pm
Thank you so much Jeff for following through on the invite.
Sincerely appreciate it!
Comment by Linda Buquet (297 comments) — July 11, 2011 @ 11:45 am
Hi Jeff,
I’d love an invite too.
steff [at] parua [dot] co.uk
THANK YOU MUCHLY!
Comment by Steff (1 comments) — July 12, 2011 @ 8:17 am
Hi Jeff,
May I please have an invite as well?
sharon[at]philadelphia-acupuncture.com
thank you for your consideration!
Comment by sharon sherman (1 comments) — July 12, 2011 @ 3:55 pm
I like the idea, I mean from a business standpoint it makes sense for google because it gives them another channel to create revenue. There will definitely be enough businesses to sign up even if they are on places and google can attract additional advertising streams.
Comment by Shawn (15 comments) — July 12, 2011 @ 8:38 pm
It’s like Coke or Pepsi, which do you prefer with this Google+ vs. Facebook thing. But Google + will have an edge here if they execute well. I’m curious to see how the Google Plus and Google Places pages work together. Will they be tightly and nicely integrated? If it’s anything like the Google Analytics and Google webmaster fiasco, well then they’re just being idiots.
Comment by Pashmina (5 comments) — July 13, 2011 @ 1:16 pm
Maybe it will be set up so that it is not too complicated. It seems that Google+ is starting to take off, and I am interested to see if and how Google+ Business Profile Pages will be better than the Facebook business pages.
Comment by HMillican (1 comments) — July 13, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
I’ve had a Google profile for my business for months now. Was that supposed to be for personal use only?
I’m really confused right now with Google Places and Google Profiles.
What is the difference between the two, and how is this new profile different from my existing Google profile?
Comment by Pamela Egan (6 comments) — July 21, 2011 @ 6:40 pm
Anybody have a good and easy guide to create a good looking Google + company page?
Comment by Kristian Ole Rørbye (1 comments) — December 13, 2011 @ 3:42 am
Urgh…as a small business owner trying to keep up with Facebook profiles seems to be enough..haha! But we’re attempting to move over more towards Google+ as we know it also plays a bigger part with our SEO efforts.
Mike do you have an good guides or resources we could use to build a more effective Google Business Profile?
Comment by BJ Wright (6 comments) — March 10, 2012 @ 4:39 pm
@BJ
Try this guide.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1999 comments) — March 10, 2012 @ 5:50 pm