Google Makes It Quite Obvious Where You Can Find Google+

But will the blue arrow help?

Inspiration meets innovation at Brandweek, the ultimate marketing experience. Join industry luminaries, rising talent and strategic experts in Phoenix, Arizona this September 23–26 to assess challenges, develop solutions and create new pathways for growth. Register early to save.

Now that Google has officially taken the training wheels off Google+ and opened it up to everyone, it's advertising the social network on the world's largest digital billboard: Google.com. The blue arrow you see above, pointing at a link to Google+, is actually drawn on the homepage today. (It's visible on most browsers, though not all.) With more than 25 million users, Google+ has already put up impressive numbers, which are bound to skyrocket with such visible placement now that the site has officially come out of invite-only beta. However, some industry observers are skeptical that Google+ will find mass appeal, given reports that traffic and time on site had begun to slump in late August. I'd argue that today's promotion is exactly what Google+ needs: prompting a massive injection of new users. The biggest beef I've heard about the network is that it often feels vacant of "real-life friends" and instead has felt like the playground of self-promoters and other early adopters. What do you think? Will this not-so-subtle promotional move help make Google+ the social-network second coming that so many prophesied it to be?