Facebook Starts Looking For Click-Bait So You Don't Have To

Lots of people use Facebook as a news feed rather than a social site. Even if you mix the two up, chances are you see some website news in your feed (like ours). Facebook is making another pass at creating the best system possible, and it will help weed out the nonsense for you. As for websites and publishers — they may have to change their practices.

We've all seen it, and it's a nasty term many toss around loosely: clickbait. A "clickbait" title is one that offers up little info, but asks that you click it anyway. It's like saying "I have a surprise for you". You're encouraged to click on the link and be redirected to the website in question, but you don't really know why.

Those mystery posts sometimes get lots of clicks, which Facebook's algorithm currently equates to "this is awesome, everyone loves it, so push it more". Actual people at Facebook know this is sometimes untrue, so they're creating a click-bait discovery tool for their algorithm. When it notices an article that meets certain metrics, it assumes it to be click-bait.

So, what are these "metrics" Facebook is looking for? The algorithm will look at how long people who do click on the link end up away from Facebook. That time away suggests you either found something useful in the article and are enjoying it, or realize quickly it's nonsense.

Facebook is also comparing actual click-throughs with likes and comments. According to Facebook, "If a lot of people click on the link, but relatively few people click Like, or comment on the story when they return to Facebook, this also suggests that people didn't click through to something that was valuable to them."

Facebook is also cracking down on how a post is actually created. Giving two examples, Facebook says those with pictures and links buried in the description will be demoted. Those that have a full link, which will show a larger title and some subject, are preferred. Again, the aim is to make sure you understand what you're navigating to, and why.

The goal is to keep the "You HAVE to see what happened at the VMAs last night!" posts to a minimum in your stream, instead focussing on the gritty, informative news. Along with services like "Save", and their inclusion of satire tags, Facebook is starting to take news seriously.

Source: Facebook