Jul 8, 2011 11:57 GMT  ·  By

Things seem to be going smoothly for Google with its brand new social networking project, Google+ and, sensing that this may be the first popular such project from Google with the potential of becoming quite big, plenty of companies have started setting up shops on the site, to get in early.

One of the biggest and most notable is Ford which is already actively engaging with followers.

But Google has made it clear that Google+ is not open for businesses yet and has even started to delete such profiles. It is working on launching brand pages though and the first may land as soon as two weeks from now.

Google's Christian Oestlien, lead product manager for social advertising at the company, who provided the first updates on brand pages, said that Google was flooded with requests soon after enabling companies to sign up for a trial period, to test the new business pages.

Oestlien told AdAge that, already, several thousands of companies and organizations have signed up to be one of the first to get Google+ brand pages.

Companies can continue to put their names on the list for a few more days, after which Google will select the ones that will get access to the testing phase.

A few are pretty much guaranteed to get in, the ones that have already started being active on the site, like Ford or MTV, Google says, will most likely get in. The big tech blogs that are usually first to claim their space are also getting a change to kick the tires of the new brand pages.

Once the registration period ends, in a few days, Google will reach out to those selected and wants the process to happen within the next couple of weeks. If everything goes smoothly, brand pages on Google+ will be landing in a few weeks' time, but don't expect to be able to register a page for your company sooner than at least a couple of months.