Tech firms in land grab on Google+ Pages

Australian enterprises and some of Google's major adversaries have flocked to Google+ within the day of it opening its doors to business pages.

At the time of publishing, Facebook and Twitter have three accounts apiece, suggesting squatters are already exploiting the service before Google verifies each new account.

Dell, Oracle, SAP, Telstra, EMC, IBM and other big tech companies jumped on Google's new Google+ Pages service within hours of it opening, and were joined later by Apple and Microsoft.

In Australia, NAB claimed to be the "first Australian bank to launch on Google+", launching its page just past noon yesterday after working with Google "over the past few weeks".

"NAB works closely with Google on new channels for our customers," said Chris Smith, general manager of Digital NAB.

"Google+ offers new functionality, including opportunities to segment our audience in to 'Circles'. We'll be watching our community closely to see who is joining and what they're interested in hearing from us."

The Commonwealth Bank introduced its Google+ page, bearing the name "CommBank", to its Facebook followers late yesterday afternoon, but appeared to have a doppleganger called "Commonwealth Bank" today.

Meanwhile, the ANZ Bank was evaluating Google+ but had "no formal plans to launch a presence" in the near term, a spokesman said.

iiNet, Internode, Vodafone, Optus Business Tasmania and Telstra appear to have set up Google+ pages within a day of its launch.

NBN Co has not yet set up a page, despite many of its staff being on Google+ already.

All companies that establish a page will have to abide by Google's rules, such as not running contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions directly on Google+.

Companies can link to their own sites, so long as Google is not held responsible for them. 

Google also reserves the right to remove, without notice, any account that remains "dormant" for nine months, according to its additional terms of service.