In an interesting twist on the future of Google (News - Alert) News, reading online content could become more of a game than an exercise in reading, suggests a new article.

The International Business Times is speculating that Google may be trying to link “gamers and readers,” as well as “social networking.” It could then lead to a higher percentage of users reading content online.

Under the new Google News Badges, Google will give 500 badges to voracious readers. They can also show off their badges earned to friends online.

Badges start with the bronze level and then increase to silver, gold, and “ultimate.” The more they read on their favorite topic, the higher the badge level. It will also connect Google News with Google+ through a user profile, the International Business Times adds.

And the article says this way Google can then enter the games market.

“It was clear that with the launch of Google+, Google will need to find a way to compete with Facebook's lineup of Zynga (News - Alert) games,” the International Business Times said.

Google reports that its Google+ is currently in a “limited field trial.” The company is testing the service with a small number of users but soon Google+ will be “ready for everyone,” Google says.

As Google moves ahead, it is no doubt aware of a recent survey of 1,400 tablet users by Admob, where some 84 percent of them reported they use the device to play games.

That is much higher than the 61 percent who employ tablets to read news content and the 46 percent who use it to read eBooks, according to the International Business Times.

In a recent article on TMCnet it was also asked just how much do users read on Google News?

Here’s an example. In a recent blog post, Google engineer Natasha Mohanty, an engineer, said that the average reader of political news has read 20 articles on Google News about politics in the last six months.

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