Google Plus links count as backlinks

There is an ongoing discussion on Social Media and SEO. Currently promoting the synergies of these at Dell, no wonder there are some insights.

One of the common questions is:

Does Social media have an influence on natural search rankings - Answer: Yes

And there are several ways I can 'prove' that. So the question many still ask - correlation or causation, can be answered: Both!

First things first, let me show you one screen which proves the connection. Do you use Google webmaster tools? For SEO folks, that's a standard. And in that tool are backlink reports. As backlinks are considered to have one of the strongest influences on rankings, it is a standard for seo to look at these.

This is how you get there:

On the following page, select 'download latest' links from others to your site.
And then search in the results for plus.google.com as the referring url:

Voila! Clear proof that Google sees these links just as regular backlinks and tracks them in GWT.
Like with many other links, it is not possible to see HOW MUCH influence one link has - and it is not for lack of trying - but I would consider this enough  of a proof that it does count for search engine results page rankings.

Google shows these since roughly a year I would say. Now my hope would be, that Google easily and quickly identifies Google Plus Link spammers and discredits their links, but I doubt they are there already.

As shown in profile - I work for Dell and we have a rather large site with the according number of backlinks from Google Plus and many other sites.

Would you count this as proof that social influences search rankings?