Google+ the new PR?

Wired ran a story yesterday quoting an email that they received from Google that make it sound like Google+ will be the new PR, helping the big G to re-rank sites based on crowdsourcing.

“Google will study the clicks on +1 buttons as a signal that influences the ranking and appearance of websites in search results,” a Google spokesman wrote. “The purpose of any ranking signal is to improve overall search quality. For +1’s and other social ranking signals, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals are related to quality.”

The Wired article goes on to speculate that "If Google’s search results become heavily dependent on social signals from Google+, then there’s going to be heavy pressure on the net’s websites to embed the Google+ button."

The same article also points to a Forbes magazine article where the author says “the message in this meeting was clear: “Put a Plus One button on your pages or your search traffic will suffer.”...but that article was pulled and it was flushed from Google's cache too. Fortunately, someone snapped a copy of it and we can still view it via a link from the Wired article.

This is all further proof of how important G+ is going to be in the future of SEO and SERPs.

Check out the full article at http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/...but-its-touchy

I wish i could get into google + but i can;t stand it. i wonder if this could cause an upheaval in googles popularity. and see people using other SE's instead. the +1 seems too easy to manipulate.

I think we will have to start a thread about g+ and get the whole community involved in helping each others ratings. Anyone game?