Search giant Google opened to businesses and brands the doors of its upcoming social network Google+ with two new features: “Pages” for businesses and organizations; and “Direct Connect”. “So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people,” Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of engineering, said in a blog post. “But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about – from local businesses to global brands,” Gundotra said. He said the new feature, called Google+ Pages, would allow users to connect with their local bike shop, for example, or follow a band on tour and would help businesses and brands connect with customers and fans. Facebook, which has more than 800 million members, already allows businesses, brands, groups and others to create their own pages. Google on Monday also introduced a feature called “Direct Connect” to allow users to quickly find a particular Google+ page. To find the page for the Angry Birds game, for example, a user types the symbol “+” into the Google search box followed by AngryBirds (+AngryBirds). Angry Birds is one of a number of brands with a Google+ Page.
