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Follow UsOn his blog, Huber further said that he cannot announce a launch date yet, but Google+ wants to make them great, and it's coding as fast as it can.
“I am not sure what I think about the idea of having a second SMB profile in addition to an already claimed Places page (it is early, I am on vacation and typing on a bad cell signal on my iPhone but wanted to get this out),” he said.
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He added that a large number of small businesses have yet to figure out Places and the idea of a second “Places” is somewhat daunting unless it is well integrated into the existing processes. “In the end, I suppose that it comes down to the benefits that an SMB would derive as to whether it will be worth it. It is certainly an interesting idea.”
Meanwhile, Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence (SMI), a consulting and research firm focused on the Internet's influence on offline consumer purchase behavior, stated on his blog that offering small business owners a Google+ page wouldn’t be another profile. It would be giving them a social media product.
He added that if Google can find a natural way to integrate a SMB’s Google Place Page with new Google+ functionality then that’s a win for everyone. “If you’re Google, you just took a serious chunk out of Facebook’s armor. Facebook is having a slow go getting SMBs to merge their Facebook Place Page with their Brand page.”.
He continued, “If Google can make it work the way Facebook hasn’t been able to, they solidify themselves as the one-stop-shop for small business owners. If Google can put that Twitter-like functionality into one integrated Google+/Place page, then that becomes interesting as a small business owner. Instead of a profile, you get a living, breathing page that you can use to interact with customers and have them maybe interact back. SMBs get a real social portal.”