Goolge +1 Impact : Did you tried ?

Innovative SEO : Learn & Share All About SEO

Hello Friends,
Few days back, Google has released a new feature known as Google +1. Its different from Google buzz services & I am sure many of you have read about the same. Initially it seems that, its more like a kind of personal search & help individual to improve the personal search only, but now with the recent research & testing the data says something different.
Google +1 Impact : Improved Organic clicks by 20%

Recently, One of the Dutch SEO Firm has released a White paper on the impact of +1′s on SERPs, reporting that its website reported almost 20 % more traffic after it garnered +1′s. So, How they exactly implemented & tested Google +1 for their website. The story goes like this,

The company asked readers to +1 its website on SERPs in exchange for a service valued at $9, and 73 consumers responded. Once users who were logged into their Google accounts gave experiment pages a +1, they were then asked to re-tweet these pages to let the company know they had participated.

So, that’s it ? Did it improved the traffic ? Well, Answer is not in black & white. There are some more questions which needs to be answered like, what share of increased visibility comes from +1 and what share might be a result of the re-tweets? The company reported that,

It is impossible to measure the effect of the +1 votes on rankings in isolation

The company also acknowledges that 73 participants don’t offer conclusive evidence on the value of Google’s +1 service. So, How can they say that, Google+1 have contributed. The reason behind that statement is, they saw approx 20 % increase in rankings and corresponding gains in clicks and visits for various keywords following the Google +1 experiment. It should be noted here that even Brafton has reported that Google’s Matt Cutts has suggested +1 will become a ranking signal.
But, For me, it still more sounds like a social signal & it can be only counted when people login to their account on Google. Even, Google +1 button only get visible if you login to your Google account. So, Yes, Google +1 button helps to improve rankings & traffic if you are a brand or if website have more amount of social & referral traffic. Its still too early to say that, it will impact the rankings or not, but yes at-least few things are clearing up & people have started implementing it.
What do you think about Google +1 impact ? Do you think that it will help to improve the SERP rankings or just counted as social signal ? Do you think, this will be a new game changing factor ? Eager to see your response on this