Brands recognize that search marketing has a strong ROI, with 72 percent of recently surveyed search marketers indicating they plan to increase their SEM technology spend this year over 2011. 26 percent foresee spending at the same level, while just 2 percent of respondents intend to reduce their investments in search marketing technology. The maturity of enterprise SEO platforms has reached mainstream adoption, notes BrightEdge in their 2012 Search Marketers Survey report.

In a move that is likely to raise more concerns about anti-competitive behavior, Google has begun listing its Google+ brand pages on its search engine results page. The page listings, which were noted today by researcher BrightEdge Technologies but previously reported by All About Content, include promotional messages from the brands, producing what is essentially an advertisement for the brand, as well as Google's social network.

Most of the top brands have their own Google+ Page, but their popularity leaves something to be desired. According to BrightEdge, 77 of the top 100 brands now have Google+ pages (for comparison, 93 of the top 100 have Facebook Pages). The total number of followers for those 77 brands is now 222,000.

In a move that could raise some charges of anti-competitive behavior, Google has begun integrating Google+ brand page information in primary search results. The inclusion, noted by researcher BrightEdge, appears only for some brands at the moment. BrightEdge, which has tracked Google+ brand pages since they went live on Nov. 7, just noticed the Google+ integration on Dec. 20.(Though Search Engine Land discovered it last month.)

BrightEdge found that 77 of the top 100 brands (as determined by Millward Brown's Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2011 list) now have G+ pages. In comparison, 93 of the top 100 have Facebook Pages. The total number of followers for those 77 brands is now 222,000 vs. 147,000 when BrightEdge took its first survey of G+ brand pages last month.