Google News is fantastic. I check it almost daily because it serves up content tailored to my interests. But there’s one thing that drives me absolutely insane: clickbait headlines that refuse to answer their own questions.
These publications craft headlines purely as curiosity bait—dangling just enough information to make you wonder, but never enough to actually inform. It’s a terrible user experience that treats readers like marks in a carnival game.
The clickbait hall of shame
Let me show you what I mean. Here are four actual headlines from Google News:
- The Real Reason Han Solo Never Paid Back Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars (Comic Book Resources)
— What’s the reason? He was too busy smuggling spice for a massive payout. - My Daughter Can’t Seem to Get Behind a Basic Part of Growing Up. It’s Become a Daily Battle (Slate)
— What’s the basic part? Being responsible for her belongings. - Trump’s Fury at Harvard Gets More Deranged—and Exposes a Big MAGA Scam (New Republic)
— What’s the scam? He’s funding tax cuts for the rich. - Star Wars fans have spotted a Death Star detail in Rogue One that makes a Princess Leia moment in A New Hope even more upsetting (GamesRadar+)
— What’s the detail? Rogue One showed detailed destruction of Jedha. However, Episode IV didn’t show any close-up scenes of deaths when Alderaan was blown up.
Each of these could have been written clearly and directly. Instead, they chose the tease. Every single time.
The solution: AI-powered headline translation
We’re living in the age of AI that can summarize articles and extract key information instantly. So here’s the idea: a service that takes these awful clickbait headlines and translates them into actual information.
Imagine a Google News alternative that shows you headlines like:
- “Han Solo stayed in debt to Jabba because he prioritized a lucrative spice smuggling job”
- “Parent struggles with daughter who repeatedly loses her belongings”
- “Trump’s Harvard criticism tied to his support for wealthy tax cuts”
- “Rogue One shows details of a moon’s destruction, while Episode IV shows no detail of Alderaan’s destruction”
Headlines should inform, not manipulate
A good headline should function like a movie trailer that actually shows you what genre you’re watching. It should give you enough information to decide whether you want to invest your time reading the full piece.
Instead, we get headlines that act like that friend who says, “You’ll never believe what happened!” and then makes you beg for details. It’s exhausting.
The truth is, readers are smart enough to decide what interests them when given actual information. We don’t need to be tricked into clicking—we need to be respected enough to make informed choices about our attention.
Until someone builds this anti-clickbait news service, I’ll keep suffering through Google News, mentally translating terrible headlines and wondering why we’ve all agreed to this terrible system where information is held hostage for clicks.
There are a number of sites doing this now, but check out mine at readthereserve.com. I created it for this exact reason – huge Google News user and fan but frustrated with Publisher headlines and unpredictable quality.
By default we don’t use publisher headlines at all – they tend to be long and ‘click’ oriented – and instead show the summary of the Story as covered by many sources, and highlight the best article for each Story/Topic for you to read full articles. We read the full article to score it for Tone, Context, and Sourcing. Let me know what you think!