Google explores re-ranking search results using +1 button data

Google is making plans to turn its +1 button into a crowdsourcing tool that helps it re-order search results and fight web spam. While not surprising, the move would bring Google's search engine into the social networking era, while simultaneously creating a new avenue for blackhats to manipulate search results and potentially incurring the wrath of trust-busting authorities.
Google confirmed its plans in an e-mail to Wired.com.
"Google will study the clicks on +1 buttons as a signal that influences the ranking and appearance of websites in search results," a 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."
But these plans are a touchy subject for the search giant, especially given the scrutiny that Google is under from regulators in Washington and Europe over complaints that the company's results favor its own products over those of other companies.
As if to underscore that point, Google prefaced its admission of the +1 search integration project to Wired.com with a statement downplaying its potential significance: "There are more than 200 signals that we use to determine the rank of a website, and last year we made more than 500 improvements to the algorithm."
Introduced in March, the +1 sharing button debuted with little incentive for web surfers to click on it. If you +1-ed a story on a website that embedded the button