John Battelle writes in his blog:
"Given that Google+ results are dominating so many SERPs these days, Google is clearly leveraging its power in search to build up Google+.
Unless a majority of people start turning SPYW (Search Plus Your World) off, or decide to search in a logged out way, Google has positioned Google+ as a sort of “mini Internet,” ..."
...“Google has decided that beating Facebook is worth selling their soul.”
...
"...If a large percentage of people are logged into Google and/or Google+ when they are searching for stuff, ...Google+ pages are going to rank well for those people.
Hence, I really have no choice but to play Google’s game, and tend to my Google+ page, be I a brand, a person, a small business…. are you getting the picture here?
If you decide to NOT play on Google+, you will, in essence, be devalued in Google search, at least for the percentage of people who are logged in whilst using Google."
Read the full article (and the comments below): http://battellemedia.com/archives/2012/01/our-google-conundrum.php