aristotle - 9:02 pm on Oct 17, 2012 (gmt 0)

I've not a member of Google+ either, but from what I've read, their member authors get their photo in the SERPs, and Google may regard their writing as somehow more authoritative and give it a boost in the rankings. Some have suggested that Google is so desperate for new members that they are trying to use incentives to get people to join.