This is a smart move. There are many interesting directions and questions.
(1) Can we choose to give a particular search weight to different Google+ groups that are against our profile? I'd like to see what Hacker News thinks the search results should be and I'd like to see what my friends think the search results should be.
(2) Following from the previous point, I believe Google could effectively turn this into a sort of auto-generated "sub-reddit" system that does not require link submission, instead being powered by "+1". Or how about the top +1's from the group this day, week, year? The only things missing would be (a) comments by group users, and (b) some generic Google way of searching for public groups or tying these to internet communities.
Aside:
(4) What happens when spammers start adding themselves to the hngp.axxim.net Hacker News circle and then when we add this circle to our Google+ we start getting sponsored search results? Can we stop this? An active profile with a high average karma seems to me like an acceptable solution for a higher quality group but I guess we can't get that information easily... I wonder if the guy who created the Hacker News circle will allow us to update our profile in the circle to include our Hacker News username?
>allow us to update our profile in the circle to include our Hacker News username
FYI, the Hacker News username is already an optional field that was added after some people had already added themselves; not sure if you can update your profile or not if you didn't include it earlier.
I think the idea is great, but I'm not sure Google has fully figured out what to do with it's social search.
I may like to know in search what all the Hacker News users like and dislike, but I'm not sure I'm really intereseted in everything they write on their google wall (even if mostly are probably great posts :) ).
(1) Can we choose to give a particular search weight to different Google+ groups that are against our profile? I'd like to see what Hacker News thinks the search results should be and I'd like to see what my friends think the search results should be.
(2) Following from the previous point, I believe Google could effectively turn this into a sort of auto-generated "sub-reddit" system that does not require link submission, instead being powered by "+1". Or how about the top +1's from the group this day, week, year? The only things missing would be (a) comments by group users, and (b) some generic Google way of searching for public groups or tying these to internet communities.
Aside:
(4) What happens when spammers start adding themselves to the hngp.axxim.net Hacker News circle and then when we add this circle to our Google+ we start getting sponsored search results? Can we stop this? An active profile with a high average karma seems to me like an acceptable solution for a higher quality group but I guess we can't get that information easily... I wonder if the guy who created the Hacker News circle will allow us to update our profile in the circle to include our Hacker News username?