Google urges businesses not to sign up to Google+

Google's latest social networking offering is not ready for business use, according to a key developer on the project.

Christian Oestlien, advertising lead for Google+, has urged businesses in a blog post not to sign up to Google+ just yet, as the "product as it stands is not optimally suited" for business needs.

Google+ is going directly up against social networking giants, such as Facebook and Twitter, with features that include creating "circles" of friends and multi-person video conferencing. Targeting the business audience will be essential if Google wants to compete with Facebook, which has dedicated pages and capabilities for corporate users.

"The business experience we are creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to businesses. We just ask for your patience while we build it," wrote Oestlien.

"In the meantime, we are discouraging businesses from using regular profiles to connect with Google+ users. Our policy team will actively work with profile owners to shut down non-user profiles."

Google will be running a small experiment over the next few months with marketing partners to monitor the effect of including businesses and brands in Google+.

Google requests that "non-user entities" who would like to take part in the experiment should register their interest to do so.