Will Google news search kill the headline writer?

Google_news

According to the New York Times, sub-editors are taming their more creative headline writing instincts and dazzling punnery and wit in order to appeal to search engines.

The search-engine "bots" that crawl the Web are increasingly
influential, delivering 30 percent or more of the traffic on some
newspaper, magazine or television news Web sites. And traffic means
readers and advertisers, at a time when the mainstream media is
desperately trying to make a living on the Web.

So news
organizations large and small have begun experimenting with tweaking
their Web sites for better search engine results. But software bots are
not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly
literal-minded. 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.

In newspapers and
magazines, for example, section titles and headlines are distilled
nuggets of human brainwork, tapping context and culture. "Part of the
craft of journalism for more than a century has been to think up clever
titles and headlines, and Google comes along and says, ‘The heck with
that,’ " observed Ed Canale, vice president for strategy and new media
at The Sacramento Bee.

This story supports my growing conviction that "search is the media", now it appears that even editors of mainstream media are realising this and learning how to be SEO (search engine optimisation) specialists.

Very interesting, but also sad for those of us who love the craft of the headline writer? Maybe they can continue to show off their wordsmithery in sub-headlines and standfirsts (unless Google starts to penalise them for that?).

: : One of the things I have enjoyed learning about from the experience of being a blogger is the way that content travels across the networks that make up the blogosphere and the wider web.

Yesterday for instance, the post I wrote about myspace.com briefly appeared on the BBC Radio One news site. I didn’t see it but for fifteen minutes or so a trickle of visitors arrived from there to see the views of my little brother.

Every now and again a topical issue and snappy headline snag a link for Open on memeorandum or seem to be what Newsnow readers are looking for – it’s really cool when that happens.

Via Micropersuasion.

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5 responses to “Will Google news search kill the headline writer?”

  1. Newspapers, like bloggers, write headlines for search engines

  2. Is Headline Writing relevant anymore?

    In a posting by Antony Mayfield he comments on an article in the New York Times that talks about editors are having to learn how to write headlines for search engines rather than people. The various bots out there that…

  3. When you mention that you feel that “search is media” I would agree with you in the sense that it is part of the overall picture, and a key part of an SEO strategy.

    But it takes a number of pieces put together that really makes drawing visitors to your site work.

    You comments on headlines I totally agree with as in the online world, their main purpose isn’t to draw visitors, but grab them once they get there.

  4. It’s sad to note that some media feel this way, changing their habits to suit technology. Technology should be changing to suit us.

  5. Whoa..
    Headlines can still be creative in print..
    So what if the web headlines become trivial.
    It’s free!

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