14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that Google+ launched without pages support, allowing only 'humans' to set up profiles on the site, has been criticized enough. But Google said it needed time to work on the feature and that it didn't expect so many people to be interested in its social network so fast.
It took a few months, but Google+ pages are here. And it's beginning to look like they were worth the wait. While Google+ still has to prove itself as a mainstream social network, brands and organizations have some interesting advantages for using Google+.
Google is very determined to make Google+ a success and it's using its most powerful weapon to achieve this, search. One of the interesting features unveiled when Google+ pages were launched is Direct Connect.
Direct Connect enables users to go directly to a brand's Google+ page if they type '+' in front of their query in Google Search. This only works for a few brands for now, but it's an interesting addition.
But the really interesting part is that Google is not stopping there, for some pages that have enabled Direct Connect, which are a few in the first place, it is now enhancing search results.
Results for these pages now include the last couple of Google+ posts from the company or brand, below the entries for the official site. This is a very big change and move for Google, which does not interfere with organic, algorithmic search results.
It has been enhancing search results page with additional info and links to its own properties, but the Google+ links are very much integrated with the regular results, though they are displayed a bit differently.
Along with the Google+ posts, Google is also including an "Add to circles" button to enable searchers to follow brands directly from the search results.
Google had already integrated regular Google+ profiles with search results along with the "Add to circles" button, so this extension is natural, but it's big news for brands everywhere. For the time being, Google is moving slowly so these new features are only available to a few people, but the plan is to make them available to all, eventually.