Google News offers Badges for news-reading bragging rights

What's your favorite news topic? America's debt ceiling? Rumors of Apple's next iPhone? Or maybe gossip about Hollywood celebs? If you use Google News to find and read the latest tidbits regarding your interests, Google wants to give you a merit badge for your efforts.

According to the search giant's official blog, Google is testing a new option called, Google News Badges, on its news aggregation website, news.google.com. The badges are online icons that track "how voracious a news reader you are... as you read articles about your favorite topics," says the blog.

The more than 500 badges range from entertainment to world news, and are further distinguished by five levels. The more you read, the more your badge ranks up from bronze to silver to gold to platinum and finally to "Ultimate" levels. The badges also allow users to more easily find news related to their specific topics.

More interestingly, Google says on its blog the badges can be shared with friends, allowing you "to start a conversation or just plain brag about how well-read you are."

There's no word on exactly how this works, but badge users will have to opt-in to brag since Google's badges are private by default. Still, you'll need to have a free Google account and turn on its Web history function, which tracks your online activities such as Google searches. Moreover, says Google's blog:

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

What could that next level be? Perhaps an integration into its social network project, Google+?

Would you use Google News Badges? Or are you like the Mexican Bandit in Blazing Saddles: Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.

And if you're concerned about your online privacy on social networking sites such as Facebook, check out our Guide to Online Security for safety tips.

Shareable Google News badges for your favorite topics [Official Google Blog]
Google News Now Awards Badges To Voracious Readers [Mashable]

—Paul Eng