> This tool demonstrates that Google is already accessing and indexing the data it says it needs to improve its search results. This isn't rhetoric; it's code.

It doesn't really demonstrate that. It demonstrates that Google can show G+ pages related to a topic, and that it can show high-ranked social pages linked to the owners of those G+ pages. But it doesn't show that on a broad, scalable basis Google can dependably link from a topic to a highly relevant 3rd-party social page. Demonstrating it on a couple of easy, celebrity-focused queries isn't proof of anything.

Blake why are you guys completely kicking out the legitimate G+ profile links from the search results using the bookmarklet? I thought you were against search result manipulations. I search for people like Guy Kawasaki or Trey Ratcliff who are very active in G+ and yet their profiles are not listed on the first page of the results if I use your bookmarklet.

I've noticed Facebook even asks you to login if you're logged out of Facebook and you're reading on a Facebook page. Why should Google have to deal with that when even Facebook themselves don't want their own data to be very public?

Yes, it is a technical solution to a "problem" (air quotes denoting that this was a conscious business decision by Google).

It brought to my mind the infamous checklists explaining why technical solutions to spam would fail: http://craphound.com/spamsolutions.txt