Is Google helping journalists, or co-opting them?

Over the past few months, Google has been rolling out new features for search results that allow writers to tag their profiles and blog posts and have them show up in Google with a photo and other information attached. Now the web giant has announced that these will also show up in Google News searches, but there is a catch: The new features are only available to writers who have created and linked to a profile on Google’s new Google+ network. Is the search company helping authors get discovered more easily, or has it crossed the line by trying to promote the use of its own social network over others?