The big news yesterday was that Google announced the launch of Google + Pages.
You can create a page now by going over here. I did not yet create a page because you can only own the page with a single profile and my existing Google Profile is in limbo because the migration tool is not ready yet. When it is, I'll make a couple pages and demand you all add them to your circles.
Here is a video demo explaining what it does:
There is really no point for me to write up a summary of how it all works. Danny Sullivan has two detailed articles on it:
- Google+ Pages Now Open For Businesses, Brands, Places & More
- Up Close With Creating & Managing Google+ Pages
Plus you can read a lot of the other articles via Techmeme. You should also read Scoble's complaints about the program.
On the search front, you can now do direct searches in Google for Google + pages. Here is a video on that:
I do not think the content on those pages are being indexed quickly by Google yet. I am sure it will be soon, but seems kind of slow right now.
Right now, there is not much discussion in the forums of why this matters. It is more about, I need to get my profile asap. Like I said, I'll get my profiles when the migration for my account is complete. Until then, I'll have to wait.
I am sure we will learn over time the importance of search and Google + pages in the near future - so stay tuned.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Sphinn, Google Places Help, Search Engine Watch Forums and Google Plus Help.