Aiming to make the Huffington Post more interactive and more social network friendly, the news site yesterday introduced "HuffPo Badges" to encourage interaction among readers, mediabistro.com reported today.

So what do the badges do?

Mediabistro's Alex Alvarez explains: "Basically, they function like a cross between Gawker's tiered, 'starred commenter' system and Foursquare badges. HuffPost badges are awarded based on user activity and interactivity, so, for example, those who regularly comment on the site or share stories across social networks like Twitter can receive a 'Superuser' badge. Readers who go through flagging inappropriate comments to feel some modicum of power as they sit in their sad little cubicles all day can earn 'Moderator' badges."
The Huffington Post quietly rolled out the badge system yesterday, and plans to add more badges in the future, according to an announcement on the site.

The move to use badges and try to engage users more through social networking "has helped make us a more dynamic and interesting site, while keeping the conversation more civil. HuffPost Badges highlights and rewards the people who power our growing community," said Arianna Huffington, according to mediabistro.

The Web site's move to more actively engage in social networking is part of a strategy for future growth - to net an increasing amount of readers. Social sharing of links on networking platforms "is the fastest growing part of our traffic," Eric Hippeau, CEO of the Huffington Post, explained to TechCrunch. "Search is still bigger, but referrals from social networks is growing much faster."

Last year, the site launched its HuffPost Social News Network, which prompts readers to log in using their Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo IDs. According to March 2010 comScore figures, the site now attracts 23 million readers a month in the United States, 800,000 of which have HuffPost Social News profiles, TechCrunch reported.