It will not for all niches because no one likes liking xxx sites or gambling sites. So link building will still be important for these niches.

I think I probably should have been more clear.  I guess I’m wondering when it will have a more significant role in determining rankings.   In my experience the same “Black Hat” methods still trump anything that can be done in the social space.   Unless you are logged into your Google or Facebook account the Raw search rankings are still a product mostly of “Old School” Links, anchor text, Keyword desnsity, H1 Tags etc.   I wish there were three sliders in Google that allowed me to adjust my search results based on Social, Geo, and Time.   

I think there’s reason for this; just because a lot of people talking about something, doesn’t give it an authority status. People usually talk about stupid retarded stuff, like troll meme, viral stuff, but not necessarily high quality content.

Perhaps Google is still weighting links more heavily because real editorial links, with the appropriate anchor text, from a reputable domain are a much stronger indication of high quality, relevant content