Google+ business accounts delayed

Following the banning of several news media related brands this week on Google+, Google is now backtracking on its plans to accelerate business-oriented profiles on the new service.

Shortly after the release of Google+ to a limited pool of users, Google acknowledged a big demand for business profiles, but also asked users to refrain from creating such pages.

Many brands ignored the advice and created them, including KOMU-TV in Mid-Missouri, which got a lot of attention for its innovative use of the service. This week Google started more heavily crack down on brand accounts, including taking action against KOMU-TV’s account.

Well, not it appears some companies will have to wait longer.

“With so many qualified candidates expressing intense interest in business profiles, we’ve been thinking hard about how to handle this process. Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster. As a result, we have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months. There may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers,” Christian Oestlien, one of the Google+ developers, posted on his profile.

Ford Motor Company, however, appears to been part of the chosen few. After having its account disappear briefly, it has returned with a “Test Account” label.

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