At the time of Google’s founding, search was broadly defined as a sifting through a directory of websites. As the web grew, search became all about pages. Google, with its PageRank, came to dominate that evolution of search. Today, search is not just about pages, but also about people and the relevance of information to them. Google’s realization — however late – that it needs to use social, location and other signals to enhance its core search platform is welcome.
Why? Because the the internet (and information) are expanding with such rapidity that there is no room for assumptions, and as such our systems need to adapt to this world of no (or alternatively infinite) assumptions. Google needs to adapt, and getting social and location signals is important for the company. Search is now search relevant to you in the context of your world — and that is where Google+ comes in.
From my post on GigaOM — Why Google+ won’t hurt Facebook