Google introduced of

its very own social networking platform:

Businesses finds that a Google

Plus business page can pack a lot

of punch when it comes to

marketing, branding, and

building a credible Internet presence.

Google recently made Google Plus

business pages virtually mandatory

for businesses concerned with

maintaining the web status quo, with

the announcement that Google Plus

is completely absorbing Google

Places, in the form of Google Plus Local.

enable real-time interaction

between businesses and their customers send out direct

messages to them

post regular updates

both businesses and customers will be

able to filter, search, and organize their contacts in Google + circles

Now, instead of displaying a business’ page in a list of search engine results, Google will provide web surfers with more interactive Google + Local pages by way of several different avenues.

In addition to Google.com search engine results pages, Google + Local listings will also appear when users search Google Maps and Google Plus, and also when they make use of Google mobile apps.

Whereas Google Places relied on a 5-star scales to convey average user review ratings, the new Google + format makes use of something called the Zagat score. The Zagat score is more comprehensive – including marks for a number of categories related to each specific type of business – and the 0 to 30 range is therefore indicative of a business’ rating on a broad range of factors.