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Google offering Google+ for businesses, free until the end of 2013

Google is bringing the enterprise-friendly elements of its Apps platform into Google+ in order to help businesses collaborate on projects online. The company's been using the service internally, but feels it's time to launch, in Google tradition, a "full preview" with a free and open beta that'll run until the end of 2013. The feature set includes private sharing, admin tools and, most impressively, hangouts directly integrated into Calendar, Gmail and Docs -- letting you video chat with multiple colleagues while you draft that project proposal, or resignation letter. Apps chief Clay Bavor hasn't mentioned how much the service will cost when the preview period finishes, but we'd be surprised if it was much more than what it currently charges if it's trying to snare the Yammer and Salesforce crowds.