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I wonder if outlets like Buzzfeed will be able to do something like write Facebook specific headlines to get past the clickbait filter, while still using clickb

I wonder if outlets like Buzzfeed will be able to do something like write Facebook specific headlines to get past the clickbait filter, while still using clickbaity headlines for the same stories other places

cddotdotslash 10y ago
This is actually interesting. When Facebook determines the article title, their crawlers go out and pull down the page. It'd certainly be interesting to catch the user agent and present a different version if Facebook is detected.
- goshx 10y ago
  Someone is probably writing you a job offer as I type this message
- haney 10y ago
  I've read that google penalizes users if they present a different version of the page to bots than end users (I guess they pretend to be a browser and access the page from an undisclosed IP). I'd be surprised if Facebook didn't do the same.
- honkhonkpants 10y ago
  Presenting different content to Google's spider vs. users' browsers is the kind of thing that will get you banned from Google. I wonder if Facebook has similar policies.
- Kadin 10y ago
  I believe that Google's crawler is designed to detect when it's being fed false information, and punishes pages accordingly for it. Wouldn't be hard for Facebook to do the same thing.
- jon-wood 10y ago
  You don't have to do anything more than at some metadata to your page which Facebook will automatically use.
- morgante 10y ago
  You don't even have to do anything as complicated as that. Lots of sites already use a separate title in their OG tags from what the normal version is.
- artursapek 10y ago
  But then the post displays the non-clickbaity title, which defeats the point.
mgraczyk 10y ago
I've noticed the reverse on many occasions, especially from moderately reputable news sites. The Facebook specific metadata for the page will tell Facebook to annotate the article with a clickbait headline, but the actual title will be more reasonable and informative.
cooper12 10y ago
For the record since many people are mentioning Facebook's metadata, the actual name for what it uses is called Open Graph : https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters

cddotdotslash 10y ago

This is actually interesting. When Facebook determines the article title, their crawlers go out and pull down the page. It'd certainly be interesting to catch the user agent and present a different version if Facebook is detected.

goshx 10y ago
Someone is probably writing you a job offer as I type this message
haney 10y ago
I've read that google penalizes users if they present a different version of the page to bots than end users (I guess they pretend to be a browser and access the page from an undisclosed IP). I'd be surprised if Facebook didn't do the same.
honkhonkpants 10y ago
Presenting different content to Google's spider vs. users' browsers is the kind of thing that will get you banned from Google. I wonder if Facebook has similar policies.
Kadin 10y ago
I believe that Google's crawler is designed to detect when it's being fed false information, and punishes pages accordingly for it. Wouldn't be hard for Facebook to do the same thing.
jon-wood 10y ago
You don't have to do anything more than at some metadata to your page which Facebook will automatically use.
morgante 10y ago
You don't even have to do anything as complicated as that. Lots of sites already use a separate title in their OG tags from what the normal version is.
artursapek 10y ago
But then the post displays the non-clickbaity title, which defeats the point.

mgraczyk 10y ago

I've noticed the reverse on many occasions, especially from moderately reputable news sites. The Facebook specific metadata for the page will tell Facebook to annotate the article with a clickbait headline, but the actual title will be more reasonable and informative.

cooper12 10y ago

For the record since many people are mentioning Facebook's metadata, the actual name for what it uses is called Open Graph : https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters