I think there's two things here. 1. they're trying to match the 'like' button. So you '+1' something, it goes in your profile and your friends can see it. It

I think there's two things here. 1. they're trying to match the 'like' button. So you '+1' something, it goes in your profile and your friends can see it. It also would surprise me if there weren't a widget made available to publishers, so viewers of a source article could see if their friends '+1'd it. 2. They'll be able to use '+1' score as a factor in search result weighting along the lines you're suggesting. While they may still weight toward +1s from your social circle, this being Google, I doubt they'll settle for the simplest statistical use of the data. As for the browsing flow problem -- i.e. how often are you looking at google search results after you determine the result is good -- I'd be surprised if the seemingly inevitable package for site owners didn't allowing people to '+1' directly at the source.