Farhad Manjoo has done it again. Manjoo, the resident tech writer at Slate who writes with a unique clarity and seems to grok the way consumers think and how companies should market to them to achieve mainstream success, recently wrote an article on the changes in Google's SERPs following the arrival of Google Search Plus Your World. While Manjoo makes a number of cogent points about Google's melding of social results in the search results, I want to focus on a few specifics, with the goal of calling out a broader point.

Google Inc.'s introduction of its Search Plus Your World feature this month, providing extra visibility for Google+ social activity, can either be seen as an expansion of universal search (more social results=good) or a severe restriction of it (balance tipped toward Google=bad).