Google Launches News Badges 112
theodp writes "Does it make you sad that you're too grown up to earn Scouting Merit Badges? Well, thanks to the PhDs at Google, you can now start earning Google News badges as you read articles about your favorite topics. The more you read, the higher rank you'll attain; Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and finally, Ultimate. They say, '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.'"
2010 Google April Fools' Day Hoax=2011 Innovation (Score:5, Informative)
ReaderAdvantage Program [wikipedia.org]: As a 2010 April Fools' Day joke, Google announced a reward program for Google Reader known as ReaderAdvantage [google.com], in which points accumulated by users for reading items could earn them Novice, Gold, Platinum, or Totally Sweet Badges, which Google revealed was a goof [google.com].