Google today announced that you can now earn badges by reading articles on Google News.
There are badges for a variety of topics from the Dominican Republic to Harry Potter that are earned as you spend more time reading on those topics. Google says that they’re launched with more than 500 topic badges.
Each badge has several levels and you progress the more you read. You start with Bronze and move up to Silver, Gold, Platinum and Ultimate.
Google says that these badges are private by default — it seems that yes, they have learned from their mistakes — but can be shared with friends or publicly.
Google News badges work based on your web history, so if you’ve turned web history off in your Google profile you won’t be able to use this feature.
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