The Official Google Blog
Google's +1 button will soon enable users to share a page directly to their Google+ circles, increasing its ability to drive traffic. Since the button launched in June, it has functioned only within Google Search by highlighting pages you or friends had +1'd. Now it will also function much like the Facebook "Like" button by creating a post in your social network stream. Websites don't need to do anything special to take advantage of this, but they can modify their page code to specify the headline and description Google+ should use when linking to it.

Lost Remote
Missouri TV station KOMU adopted the new Google+ social network early and experimented with using its group video chats (called "Hangouts") during newscasts. But Google deactivated the account, saying it's not yet ready for businesses to join the network. A pilot program for business profiles is in the planning stages; one report says business profiles may be open within two months. KOMU New Media Director Jen Reeves and others complain that Google is enforcing its business profile ban unevenly, sometimes leaving one competitor up while taking another down. || Related: News organizations with unofficial profiles can download and back-up their data in case Google deletes them. || Also: What Google+ means for news and what’s missing.

Using Google+ Hangouts, writers can now create their own virtual hangouts to carry out writing exercises and converse with others about them.

Author Mary Robinette Kowal says the goal of these writing hangouts is “to have a little bit … Read more

Mashable Google is speeding up its plans to develop an official way for news organizations and other businesses to interact on its Google+ social network. In this early trial phase, Google+ only supports personal profiles for individuals, but many news organizations and other brands (including Poynter) have joined anyway as the network quickly gained momentum with users. Some speculate the network may have 10 million users, heading to 20 million by this weekend. A Google executive now says it will pick partners next week to test official business profiles, while continuing to deactivate the unofficial profiles that have sprung up. "Thousands upon thousands of businesses" have applied to join the trial program, Christian Oestlien wrote. After the trial, business profiles should be open to all later this year. || Related: News organizations with unofficial profiles can download and back-up their data in case Google deletes them. Should photographers worry about Google+? || Earlier: What Google+ means for news and what's missing

Inside Breaking News
Cory Bergman of msnbc.com's Breaking News shares observations from using the new Google+ social network to distribute news. Among the lessons: People love to reshare posts to their friends, even more than they like to comment on them. This is "an early sign of how viral stories can rocket throughout the network," Bergman writes. On some Google+ posts, Breaking News has seen Facebook-level engagement, despite having just 1/25 the fans as it has on Facebook. Also, unlike Facebook or Twitter, Google+ allows you to edit your posts, which means a news org can update as a story develops rather than having to create multiple posts. || Earlier: 3 missing pieces for Google+ as a news platform.