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EXTRA! EXTRA! Boring Headlines Ahead: NY Times on Google
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Written By Reprise Media | April 10, 2006 | Share This
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Say what you mean, and mean what you say. More newspapers are doing it these days, casting aside the witty references and inside jokes that grab readers in favor of plain, to-the-point headlines that rank well on search engines.
Steve Lohr reports on the phenomenon this thoughtful piece in the New York Times.
Highlights:
- The search and news engine bots that crawl pages on the web are substantial sources of traffic, up to 30+ percent - a big draw for advertisers at a time when print publications need it most.
- News bots speak a different language, says Lohr: “There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humor or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain.”
- Some news outlets are getting around it by having not one, but two headlines for each article - one for the human and one for the automated reader.
A lively debate going on here at Slashdot as to whether this is a good idea and more in this article by Danny Sullivan.
Topics: Featured Item, Media Convergence |
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