Facebook announced it is eliminating "clickbaiting" - headlines from publishers that don't give much information about what the story is about.
Facebook uses this as an example:
According to Facebook, 80 percent of people prefer headlines that help the reader decide if they want to read the full article before clicking through. Facebook also can determine what stories are clickbait by looking at how often people share and discuss the stories they are opening and how much time they spend on the webpage.
"While building updates that helps push users away from the news feed may sound bizarre for a social media giant, it does jibe with the company's goal of fostering a good user experience while cutting down on spam," reports The Verge.
Although the changes may be good for the user, Gigaom suggests that it may hurt websites that rely on social media clicks:
"The new anti-clickbait change could strike a big blow against Upworthy and Buzzfeed, but not necessarily," Gigaom wrote. "It simply puts the pressure on those companies to make their content as compelling as their click-worthy headlines. Hopefully, however, the change will demolish sites that have tried to capitalize on the Upworthy clickbait trend by imitating that headline style, even if they don't have anything interesting to say."
