Google launches 'News badges'

[Jazzy]

Regular users of Google News can now earn badges from reading about their favourite topics.



In a similar fashion to Foursquare, the location sharing service, which allows people to earn points and badges for repeat check-ins to different places, Google News users in the US can earn different pins, starting with bronze and moving up to Ultimate.



Badges are private by default but can be turned on to public so that people can talk to others about their interests.



In order to enable the service, US users have to sign up to a Google web account, enable web history and visit this page.



There are more than 500 badges available to suit all types of interest, such as ‘stock market’, ‘Harry Potter’ and US elections.



“In the U.S. edition of Google News, you can see how voracious a news reader you are by earning Google News badges as you read articles about your favourite topics,” wrote Natasha Mohanty, an engineer at Google News, on the company blog.



“The more you read, the higher level badge you’ll receive, starting with Bronze, then moving up the ladder to Silver, Gold, Platinum and finally, Ultimate….



“Your badges are private by default, but if you want, you can share your badges with your friends. Tell them about your news interests, display your expertise, start a conversation or just plain brag about how well-read you are. You can also add custom sections by hovering on a badge and clicking “add section” to read more about your favorite topics.”



There is no date for a UK launch of a similar service yet.



Google launched its social network, Google+ two weeks ago, and is increasingly trying to get people to share content via its network of services, in a similar fashion to Facebook.



Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8641058/Google-launches-News-badges.html