Google + for Business

At the moment Google plus is available for private persons. As more and more business owners are creating their Google + accounts for their brand, Google asks them to wait until business pages will be officially launched. Google will start to test these features with selected companies. If you are interested then you can apply for the test of business pages.

The given below is the image that is showing how the Google pages could look like. In comparison to Facebook pages, Google + pages not only list of fans but also list of employees and management. There will be a functionality to verify your business ownership so that fans can be sure that they are interacting with original one.

Also it will be possible to add more than one location of business by integrating Google Maps and Places. Companies can use Google Offers to include special offers for their fans and customers. The last will be able to use Sparks as a tool to keep up to date in terms of news relating to the brand. You will also be able to integrate Google Analytics and Google Adwords account to your business page.

Google + Business page will offer following features:

• Inclusion of Google +1 Button: Brands have official websites, and those websites can benefit from receiving +1’s right on the profile page. 
• Verification: Determining if a profile is genuine is important. Brand pages will need some way to verify a page and then reflect that status.
• Google Maps: As many brands have physical locations, it makes sense to offer some type of Google Maps module.
• Displaying Circles: Unlike personal pages, brands may want to show off their circles. Here’s a great chance to segment your audience and showcase top fans or employees.
• Canvas Page: For the middle column, (labeled ”About Us” in this example), brands would prefer a less structured module. The ability to stylize and include custom marketing creative would be great.
• Google Offers: Once Google Offers (Google’s answer to Groupon) rolls out more widely, I can see it being included here in the sub navigation. Brands may want to call out active offers even more prominently. 
• Sparks: I like them and hope Google continues to further develop them. In the right column, brands could feature Sparks related to their brand or products.

Media Temple: Snail-Paced Web Hosting

When website owners begin to research which web hosting UK company they are going to spend their money on they usually begin with the basics: how much disk space and bandwidth do you get for your money? What is their uptime guarantee, and how well do they manage to live up to it? What is their control panel like? However, it is also vitally important to check how fast page loading is on your web host. Slow loading times will harm your search engine rankings, and finding a good fast web host is an easy way of boosting your traffic.

Unfortunately fast loading speeds are something Media Temple have not managed to achieve. Sadly their slow speeds are not just limited to loading times – customers can also wait a long time for an answer to a query or for support when their site goes down. Their grid server form of shared hosting was launched in an attempt to combat slow shared hosting speeds whilst offering users the chance to grow their sites without hassle, but unfortunately their system has only led to a reduced page loading speed for customers and protracted periods of downtime that can last for days. In the increasingly competitive world of web hosting there is no reason why customers should put up with slow speeds when other hosts are offering so much more. Media Temple need to improve their performance if they are going to tempt customers back into the fold.