Google+ Introduces Custom URLs


The rapidly growing social media site Google+, built to compete with rival Facebook, is introducing a feature guaranteed to get business users excited. The social community will be offering custom URLs to business pages and profiles, giving them greater visibility with a shorter and hopefully more memorable Web address for their sites. And there are other surprises in store:

Rolling Out

Write down that address! If you’ve ever tried to give someone your Google+ URL, you know it is a long and ponderous exercise in futility. But Google’s new plan has already made more intelligible URLs available to a select number of big brands and celebrities, with more users worldwide hopefully able to take advantage of them soon. TechCrunch

Standby for re-branding. The new move by Google allowing verified business and profile accounts on Google+ to re-brand with custom Web addresses, or “vanity” URLs as they are sometimes called, will benefit more than just the businesses already flocking to the social site. It may also be the sign of something more significant in the wind. The Next Web

Getting Social

HootSuite hookup. If the new URL change wasn’t enough, there’s more news from social media management platform HootSuite on a feature that will make Google+ an even bigger benefit for your business branding. HootSuite has now added Google+ to the list of social sites you can manage here. Watch this simple setup guide. Ileane Smith

A pressing engagement. Google+ may be helping companies now flocking to the social site to increase brand awareness, but the same old question remains. Where’s the engagement? Without the social give and take found on sites like Facebook and Twitter, business owners must question the time they invest. Technorati

Business Shifts

Searching for relevance. A look at recent news from Google reveals many changes to the company’s services and products, including innovations to tools relied upon by small businesses like yours. Here we  take a comprehensive look at how these shifts in direction may impact business, now and long term. Small Business Trends

Better than cable. Google introduces Fiber as a challenge to the cable industry, offering high-speed Internet to residents and businesses in selected test communities. But small businesses must also consider how the new offering may eventually change the landscape for marketing products in new and unexpected ways. Gigaom

Google packs its bags. The tech giant makes its third venture into the travel sector with the purchase of Frommer’s print and digital products for around $23 million. The move should be a lesson to businesses of all sizes. If successful, the purchase shows how entering industries not originally considered as part of a company’s market can bring unexpected opportunities. Skift

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  1. The ability for businesses to customize their Google+ URLs will no doubt increase usage on the site. That’s such an integral part of the business-social media relationship that I’m surprised it took this long for a company as savvy as Google.

  2. Martin Lindeskog

    Do you know when Google+ will roll out vanity URLs for us who are not celebs? 😉 I will keep my Gplus.to/Lyceum short URL until then! 😉