I assume implicitly that votes only count for users two degrees of separation from you and it’s tied to real life friends registry. Wish FB hasn’t happened and the web of trust stuff turned into something useful.
heck they maybe already do this in a different/more hierarchical form based on a person’s Youtube graph.
They don't seem to be using that data to improve search results. I've noticed a considerable decline over the years, and Google is now definitely my 2nd or 3rd choice when I'm trying to find something.