( WIRED ) -- 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 , your profile picture would display next to the URL when a friend of yours ran a search with results that included that URL . WIRED : Google+ button lets you share , finally . But last week , the button entered adolescence , and can now be used to post stories to friends and followers on Google+ , much as the Like button functions for Facebook . So the next step of using what people are liking , sharing and buzzing about online to rearrange search results is obvious enough . Google dipped its toe into these waters with Twitter by licensing its stream of Tweets , but that agreement ended before Google got so far as to figure out how to do more with the fire hose of real-time information than just decorate pre-computed search results with Tweeters ' profile pictures . And as for Facebook ? Google would love to get at its data -- the way that Bing is already -- but the two companies go together like toothpaste and orange juice . Facebook will likely never let Google anywhere near its data stream , which meant that Google had to build in its own social network . But therein lies the rub . If Google 's search results become heavily dependent on social signals from Google+ , then there 's going to be heavy pressure on the net 's websites to embed the Google+ button . And depending on where you work -- say , Facebook or the Justice Department -- that could look like Google is unfairly using its search engine might to boost its Facebook alternative . That might explain why Forbes killed a story by Kashmir Hill entitled `` Stick Google Plus Buttons On Your Pages , Or Your Search Traffic Suffers '' which was seemingly based on information from a meeting with Google ad representatives . On August 18 , Hill wrote , `` the message in this meeting was clear : `` Put a Plus One button on your pages or your search traffic will suffer . '' Hill followed up with Google 's press team . which gave Hill the same carefully couched answer it gave Wired . But the story quickly disappeared from Forbes ' website and from the Google cache , though it was noticed and saved by the Raven Tools SEO blog . One guesses the tone of the post -- and its headline -- rankled someone somewhere . Forbes , Hill and Google all declined to talk on the record about the post that disappeared into the memory hole . WIRED : How Facebook could beat Google and win the net . That silence says as much as you need to know about the touchiness involved in integrating a Google +1 button with Google 's search box . But Google 's biggest weakness is the possibility that someone will figure out how to build a better search engine -- and there 's many who bet the way to do that is to make search involve more of a human touch and less of a machine 's . indeed , Google 's interest in incorporating +1s into its search ranking algorithm might also explain Google 's hard line position in the so-called Nym wars . Google is being adamant that users of its new social networking tool use their real names . In its zeal to root out fakers and people using pseudonyms , Google has deleted legitimate profiles and raised the ire of those who defend the need for pseudonyms on the internet 's identity platforms . But if Google 's going to start using those +1 votes , the company is virtually inviting the world 's spammers and blackhat SEO magicians to flood its social networking system with fake profiles and fake votes -- potentially ruining it and possibly making the problem of search spam even worse . Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $ 1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT ! Click here ! Copyright 2011 Wired.com .
Move would bring Google 's search engine into the social networking era . Comment: Google under scrutiny from regulators over complaints that search results favor its own products .