科技英语新闻:Google+ opens for businesses

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Google on Monday added a highly-anticipated service to its Google+ social network, allowing businesses and brands to set up their own pages on the site.

Named "Google+ Page," the service is a further challenge to its rival Facebook's fan pages, which has become a major promotion strategy for many business brands over the past several years.

Unlike Facebook, Google will not charge businesses and organizations for using the scheme, and will not put ads on the pages. The service is expected to enhance the tech giant's other businesses like search and mobile advertising.

Some big brand names, such as Burberry, the Barcelona football club and the Muppets, have already set up their pages.

Google noted it will not pass on personal data.

In addition to big brands, Google also wants small businesses that have or do not have their own websites to use Google+ Pages as their default presences.

According to a report by Ad Age Digital, Google+ Pages will soon be location-aware, allowing local businesses to send offers and deals to mobile phones.

According to Google, more than 40 million people have opened an account with its social network, which was launched in June. Although the network is growing very quickly, some analysts said it still has a long way to go to become a major threat to Facebook, which has more than 800 million users.