Google has opened up its Google+ social network to businesses and other organisation with the launch of Pages. The feature was launched with profiles for a range of international organisations including Angry Birds, Barcelona Football Club, Fox News, HM and Toyota.

The internet search giant said it would also allow people to add businesses to their network directly from search results with a feature called Direct Connect.

Google+ was launched last summer and now has more than 40 million users but the service has been criticised for only allowing individuals using their real names to create profiles.