Foursquare may have badges, but Cheezburger testing trophies |
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Foursquare may have badges, but Cheezburger testing trophies
Foursquare and other social media sites have popularized the idea of "badges," allowing super users of the sites to tout their achievements by collecting the virtual mementos. Now, Cheezburger Network -- the fast-growing network of more than 50 comedy Web sites -- is jumping on the bandwagon. But don't call them badges.
Cheezburger, which attracts more than 16 million visitors per month to sites such as Fail Blog, Hawtness and This is Photobomb, has begun testing a new service that allows users to earn "trophies" by creating content for the sites or voting on images or videos.
For example, a Cheezburger fan can obtain " The Decider" trophy by voting 1,000 times on the site or the "Amateur LOLologist" trophy by submitting 10 LOLs or images.
Some of the trophies users can earn on the Cheezburger Network sites.
"The main goal behind Cheezburger Trophies is to make participating on our sites even more fun," explained Cheezburger Network product manager Randy Stewart.
The addition of virtual trophies also is designed to drive more user engagement and spark competition among friends.
The service is currently in a "soft launch mode" among selected users as a few bugs get ironed out. But Stewart is hopeful that the trophy offering -- which at first will only include a small number -- will go live later this week or early next week.
"We live and die by our users, so depending on how well our Trophies are liked, we'll expand from there," said Stewart. At this point, he said the don't plan to tie the trophies to Cheezburger's merchandise business of paperback books, stuffed animals and other gear.
Cheezburger's trophy service is being managed by Seattle startup BigDoor, which also runs an online leaderboard system for BuddyTV.
Meanwhile, Cheezburger continues to roll out new sites. Just last month it introduced Tots and Crafts - a site that showcases goofy artwork from kids -- and Happy Chair is Happy -- a site that features human faces on inanimate objects. Later this week, Cheezburger hopes to unveil a site called "Totally Not Fake" with flea market items that are in fact fake.
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