The study of game theory and incentives has become a big area of study in marketing. I worked in an experimental economics lab for a few years and a lot of the

The study of game theory and incentives has become a big area of study in marketing. I worked in an experimental economics lab for a few years and a lot of the software we wrote and experiments we ran focused on little incentives like this for engagement. NOTE: I realize this has probably been going on since the dawn of time, I am not suggesting I was working on something no one else had thought of, we are just starting to see it take-shape really specifically now in online services as they play bigger and bigger roles where it was previously absent. It looks silly and insulting, but it works (on most people). Look at Stack Exchange, I love when I login and see a new badge alert across the top... I have no idea why, but I suddenly feel like I care about that site about 15% more than I do other equivalent resources. I feel like my contributions matter so I care to contribute there as opposed to someplace else. Look at the concept of Achievements on XBox and Trophies on PSN... the idea works, it creates this false sense of accomplishment and while 10% of the population might not care and might ignore it, I imagine 50%-60% are effected by it in some subtle positive way (like me) and the remaining 30% are actually motivated by it to do more of whatever caused them to "win". I think this is an unexpectedly playful way for Google to dabble in incentives inside their products. If Google News traffic goes up, I imagine we'll see badges as part of our core Google profiles within the next year or two unified across all their properties (especially Google+) My guess is that like our identities, the "badges" on your public profile (Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.) will become something the big social networks move into; trying to keep you "building" on their network as opposed to another. It works somewhat for Xbox 360/PS3, it was bound to bleed over into other arenas. ASIDE: There was a startup about a year ago that specialized in exactly this: badges for your website. Golden Door, Red Door... something like that. I wonder if they'll see a big upswing in business as people get more interested in the idea.