I don't really see the point since most thumbnails are just a screenshot of illegible text. It doesn't help at all. I think a better thumbnail system would be

I don't really see the point since most thumbnails are just a screenshot of illegible text. It doesn't help at all. I think a better thumbnail system would be to use an actual image of the article (for example, the thumbnail for the page https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/1-3-americans-0-saved-retirement/ https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/1-3-americans-0-sa... would be a crop of https://cdn.gobankingrates.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/shutterstock_160438778-1420x595.jpg https://cdn.gobankingrates.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sh...), or simply a favicon in case there's no image available. Hell, you're experimenting so why not even a carousel of all the images in the article? (moving on mouse hover ideally) Also the title should not be secondary, below the thumbnail. Maybe it should be over the image in some way?