Skip to main content

Google adds achievement badges to Google News

Google News Badges
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Google has been integrating a number of social features into its mainstay service offerings in recent weeks, and the latest service to get the treatment is Google News: the company has unveiled an early (“bronze”) release of Google News Badges, enabling users to see (and share) how much news they follow on particular topics. Google has put together more than 500 news badges. Google is pitching the badges as a way for readers to keep better track of what they read on Google news and more easily find articles that are interesting to them—and while the badges are private by default, Google does encourage users to share them with others. And as users “level-up” their badges, competition will no doubt ensue.

“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,” Google’s Natasha Mohanty wrote on the Google News Blog.

Google says it plans to take the feature “to the next level” once they see how Google News viewers use and share badges. Some industry reports speculate Google is eyeing rolling out badges and other virtual rewards for online products other than Google News.

Of course, adding gaming elements to Google News may help to make the Google News site stickier, encouraging people to use the service more deeply in order to accumulate more badges and level them up. Google News users will also have to be logged in to their Google Accounts for badges to accumulate—and that translates directly into providing Google with deeper insight into its users’ interests and activities. That information about its users is, of course, the goldmine Google sells to advertisers.

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Google One AI Premium: what is it, and how much does it cost?
Google Gemini app on Android.

Google is introducing a new AI-enabled tier of Google One, shortly after announcing a rebrand of its Bard AI chatbot.

The chatbot is now called Gemini, following the sequence of its base large language model (LLM). Google has also recently announced several other service updates, including Gemini Advanced, a paid tier of Gemini based on the new Ultra 1.0 language model.

Read more
The 23 best Google Chrome themes in 2024
google wants to kill urls make the internet safer chrome url

There's lots of ways to add a little pizzazz to your Google Chrome browser's interface. The quickest way, though, is to just add a theme. In just a few clicks, you could be staring at a beautiful cityscape or a cute puppy instead of that default Google logo and a boring white background.

But if you're having trouble picking a theme from the sea of choices Chrome Web Store has to offer, we can help narrow your options down a bit. Below, you'll find our picks for the best Google Chrome themes. On our list, you'll find great options for minimalist themes, dark themes, colorful themes, landscape themes, cityscape themes, and even cute animal themes. With our list, you're sure to find the theme that's right for you.
Best minimalist themes
Chrome looks decent on its own. It's simple, straightforward, and easy on the eyes. If you like that style and you're looking for a theme that's along those lines, these minimalist themes are for you. They take that classic Chrome aesthetic and make some subtle changes.

Read more
How to sync your Outlook Calendar with your Google Calendar
aop version 28 best value 15 inch laptops

It can be difficult to keep track of multiple calendars worth of events. And it can be especially hard when they span different calendar apps like Google Calendar and Outlook. You might then be looking for a way to sync the two apps' respective calendars between them. If you are, you've come to the right place.

Read more