Google+ Subtracts One Member

Missouri television station KOMU was the first dog to the bowl when it became the first television station to start up a Google+ account. Of course, that was because the social-networking site isn’t allowing businesses to start accounts just yet.

Lost Remote reports that KOMU’s site on Google+ has been shut down. “In lieu of flowers, please send your topic ideas for my next recorded Hangout,” KOMU anchor Sarah Hill wrote in an obituary of the page on Google+.

KOMU New Media Director Jen Reeves “points out that Google’s enforcement of the ‘no brand’ policy is random and perhaps even unfair,” the site notes. After all, a KOMU competitor, KRCG, also has a page that hasn’t been shut down.

Meanwhile, Google+ is still working with Ford and other major companies to ready itself for the launch of branded pages of Google+. Ford, like KOMU, was an early adopter and went right ahead and hacked a branded page into the site, Ad Age reports.

The upshot: just as Google is trying to establish a new brand with Google+, one that could take on (or enhance) Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and other social platforms, the delay in branded Google+ accounts has become a branding challenge for Google itself.Continue reading...