6 ms·

The Weather Channel's Secret: Less Weather, More Clickbait

32 points by cryptoz 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jameskilton 12y ago
I stopped getting my weather from The Weather Channel a long time ago, when they became more interested in click-bait articles over just reporting the weather. Thankfully today we have many alternatives: http://www.wunderground.com/ http://www.wunderground.com/ http://darkskyapp.com/ http://darkskyapp.com/ http://forecast.io/ http://forecast.io/ And of course http://www.weather.gov/ http://www.weather.gov/, to name a few.
- adestefan 12y ago
  The Weather Channel purchased Weather Underground in 2012. WU doesn't push the sensational stories on their weather pages, but their "News" section is just as much of a joke now.
  - jameskilton 12y ago
    Well as I still see a giant map of my current area and the weather, and all news stories are below the fold, so it still works. As soon as that changes I'll be looking elsewhere I'm sure.
    - adestefan 12y ago
      The worst leakage is when the winter storm names start showing up in the winter.
  - canvia 12y ago
    I didn't realize that. I guess I need to change weather providers again. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Channel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Channel The Weather Company (TWCC Holdings:[1] consortium owned by NBCUniversal (25%),[2][3] The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital,[4] exact Bain and Blackstone percentages unknown) NBCUniversal being Comcast of course. Thank you for the information.
    - bradleyland 12y ago
      Fortunately, the weather aspect of Wunderground hasn't been adversely affected by the purchase. It appears that TWC treats Wunderground as a separate property. They have allowed some level of autonomy. The extra funding has dramatically improved their web presence. Basically Wunderground is TWC's web property that targets weather geeks.
- john_b 12y ago
  If you are like me and just want to see the raw data in a user-friendly and customizable way without a bunch of pointless graphics or text descriptions, there is also http://weatherspark.com/ http://weatherspark.com/
- jimhefferon 12y ago
  It would be great if there was as TV channel that only covered the weather. Then when I am getting dressed I could have the box on, get the report, and be ready for my day. I don't want "news", I don't want Ice Road Truckers. I want weather. There's money to be made in that model, it seems to me.
- ch4s3 12y ago
  Dark Sky is the best
Afforess 12y ago
I don't understand why anyone would get their forecasts from anywhere but the NOAA website. The US government provides free, (adfree) and detailed forecasts which are more accurate than 3rd party forecasts. Most 3rd party forecast sites artificially inflate the chance of rain and other factors (because a false negative is better than a false positive, in regards to rain). The NOAA forecasts do not have this "fake" adjustment in them and are very accurate. NOAA forecasts also come with the forecast discussion, written by the Meteorologists which explain the current forecast in a detailed, meteorological way. http://www.weather.gov/ http://www.weather.gov/
- VLM 12y ago
  My favorite feature of weather.gov is more or less stable deep linking. So I can deep link to my local weather and by local forecast discussion. This would be a disaster for a clickbait supplier but is awesome for end users.
- lmg643 12y ago
  I like the weather channel's hourly weather forecast. clean, simple and runs on desktop and mobile. Also fairly accurate - will i need an umbrella by the time my evening commute hits? by the time i am coming home from dinner, etc? And I can link right to it. http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/10011 http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/10011
- gk1 12y ago
  I've found wunderground.com to be the perfect combination of clarity and high-density information. There are no click-bait "related" links there.
  - jordanpg 12y ago
    I also prefer their website on desktop, but it is perpetually annoying to me that you have to pay a yearly subscription to make ads go away in their Android app. To WU: I will pay whatever you want, just make it one-time.
- ritchiea 12y ago
brickmort 12y ago
The Weather Channel is one of the WORST offenders for clickbait ads. The whole website reminds me of a poorly designed spam wordpress site complete with 'has science gone TOO FAR? CLICK HERE!' ads.
mach5 12y ago
http://weatherspark.com http://weatherspark.com is the only weather site i hit anymore, its fabulous, putting hourlies in graph form makes the data very easy to digest, i can't recommend it enough
onezeno 12y ago
Not exactly a secret
taspeotis 12y ago
The page's <title> is "Weather Channel's Web, Mobile Growth Leads to Advertising Insights - Businessweek". Ditto for the slug in the URL. Looks like Businessweek is the pot calling the kettle black.

32 points by cryptoz 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

I stopped getting my weather from The Weather Channel a long time ago, when they became more interested in click-bait articles over just reporting the weather. Thankfully today we have many alternatives: http://www.wunderground.com/ http://www.wunderground.com/ http://darkskyapp.com/ http://darkskyapp.com/ http://forecast.io/ http://forecast.io/ And of course http://www.weather.gov/ http://www.weather.gov/, to name a few.

adestefan 12y ago
The Weather Channel purchased Weather Underground in 2012. WU doesn't push the sensational stories on their weather pages, but their "News" section is just as much of a joke now.
- jameskilton 12y ago
  Well as I still see a giant map of my current area and the weather, and all news stories are below the fold, so it still works. As soon as that changes I'll be looking elsewhere I'm sure.
  - adestefan 12y ago
    The worst leakage is when the winter storm names start showing up in the winter.
- canvia 12y ago
  I didn't realize that. I guess I need to change weather providers again. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Channel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Channel The Weather Company (TWCC Holdings:[1] consortium owned by NBCUniversal (25%),[2][3] The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital,[4] exact Bain and Blackstone percentages unknown) NBCUniversal being Comcast of course. Thank you for the information.
  - bradleyland 12y ago
    Fortunately, the weather aspect of Wunderground hasn't been adversely affected by the purchase. It appears that TWC treats Wunderground as a separate property. They have allowed some level of autonomy. The extra funding has dramatically improved their web presence. Basically Wunderground is TWC's web property that targets weather geeks.
john_b 12y ago
If you are like me and just want to see the raw data in a user-friendly and customizable way without a bunch of pointless graphics or text descriptions, there is also http://weatherspark.com/ http://weatherspark.com/
jimhefferon 12y ago
It would be great if there was as TV channel that only covered the weather. Then when I am getting dressed I could have the box on, get the report, and be ready for my day. I don't want "news", I don't want Ice Road Truckers. I want weather. There's money to be made in that model, it seems to me.
ch4s3 12y ago
Dark Sky is the best

Afforess 12y ago

I don't understand why anyone would get their forecasts from anywhere but the NOAA website. The US government provides free, (adfree) and detailed forecasts which are more accurate than 3rd party forecasts. Most 3rd party forecast sites artificially inflate the chance of rain and other factors (because a false negative is better than a false positive, in regards to rain). The NOAA forecasts do not have this "fake" adjustment in them and are very accurate. NOAA forecasts also come with the forecast discussion, written by the Meteorologists which explain the current forecast in a detailed, meteorological way. http://www.weather.gov/ http://www.weather.gov/

VLM 12y ago
My favorite feature of weather.gov is more or less stable deep linking. So I can deep link to my local weather and by local forecast discussion. This would be a disaster for a clickbait supplier but is awesome for end users.
lmg643 12y ago
I like the weather channel's hourly weather forecast. clean, simple and runs on desktop and mobile. Also fairly accurate - will i need an umbrella by the time my evening commute hits? by the time i am coming home from dinner, etc? And I can link right to it. http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/10011 http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/10011
gk1 12y ago
I've found wunderground.com to be the perfect combination of clarity and high-density information. There are no click-bait "related" links there.
- jordanpg 12y ago
  I also prefer their website on desktop, but it is perpetually annoying to me that you have to pay a yearly subscription to make ads go away in their Android app. To WU: I will pay whatever you want, just make it one-time.
ritchiea 12y ago

brickmort 12y ago

The Weather Channel is one of the WORST offenders for clickbait ads. The whole website reminds me of a poorly designed spam wordpress site complete with 'has science gone TOO FAR? CLICK HERE!' ads.

mach5 12y ago

http://weatherspark.com http://weatherspark.com is the only weather site i hit anymore, its fabulous, putting hourlies in graph form makes the data very easy to digest, i can't recommend it enough

onezeno 12y ago

Not exactly a secret

taspeotis 12y ago

The page's <title> is "Weather Channel's Web, Mobile Growth Leads to Advertising Insights - Businessweek". Ditto for the slug in the URL. Looks like Businessweek is the pot calling the kettle black.