14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook announced yesterday new changes to its newsfeed algorithm that would hide articles that feature clickbait titles in an effort to raise the quality of content shared on the social network.
Clickbait is a term used to describe headlines that create buzz around an article or title for the sole purpose of making users click a link, access a Web page, show ads so the news agency can make revenue, but without delivering the content "baited" in the title.
Clickbait articles usually involve words and expressions like "shocking," "you won't believe," "X did this, Y's reaction was priceless," and many other.
Facebook started working on the anti-clickbait algorithm last year
Unlike Twitter, Facebook is swamped with such articles, a problem that the company knew about for a few years, and that's why it started working on an algorithm to detect clickbait titles last year.
Facebook's team has announced today the launch of this algorithm, which will now hide stories from sources that use clickbait titles for their articles.
The good news is that news agencies can stop using such titles in order to be eliminated from the algorithm's blacklist and return to the users' news feeds.
Additionally, if a site posts a clickbait title once in a while, there won't be any immediate and severe impact.
Facebook has a guide for proper headlines
"Pages should avoid headlines that withhold information required to understand what the content of the article is and headlines that exaggerate the article to create misleading expectations," Facebook has explained today.
For news agencies, bloggers, and anybody else, Facebook has published a guide on how to avoid clickbait titles. In short, the easiest way is to stop taunting content and deliver it in the headline just as a respectable journalist is supposed to.