Google Offers Badges for Voracious Readers

Need even more incentive to peruse your favorite news articles? How about a badge that shows the world how deft you are at scanning from left to right?

Google News has initiated a reward system of awarding different levels of badges for readers of article on the site, according to Google's blog.As a matter of fact, there are 500 badges users can score.

The badges ladder up, from bronze to silver, then gold, platinum and finally, Ultimate. (Sounds a bit like Unobtanium, doesn't it?)

Now, the badges are kept private -- until you make them public (and the friend up your high school teachers and show them you can be somebody).

Google has bigger plans for the badging scheme, but it's not quite sure what they are just yet:

This is just the first stepβ€”the bronze release, if you willβ€”of Google News badges. Once we see how badges are used and shared, we look forward to taking this feature to the next level.

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