Deadline looms for Google+ business trial

Companies have less than two days left to apply to take part in the test phase of Google+ for businesses, according to Christian Oestlien, the advertising lead for the social network.

In a post to Google+ on Wednesday, Oestlien said the company will close the online form for applications at 6pm PST on Friday (2am on Saturday in the UK).

"Thousands upon thousands of businesses" have signed up so far for the trial, according to Oestlien. Last week, Google started discouraging companies from creating accounts on its new social network, which it wants to focus on individuals for now.

Not all of the companies that applied will make it through to the trial, Oestlien noted.

"[We] will focus next week on selecting a diverse set of business partners for the test period. We will be communicating with these partners next week, and will let the world know who they are soon thereafter," he said.

Google has been clamping down on companies with Google+ profiles in its initial trial, with Sophos and others reporting that their pages had been taken down. While some branded pages have survived so far, the cull is not over, Oestlien explained.

"Please note that we are still actively closing profiles that are being used by businesses today," he said.