You’ve seen clickbait. Those are web pages that promise to deliver interesting content but lack substance. It could be a promise of an interesting news article, perhaps a review or a product or maybe celebrity gossip. But, when you get there, you see nothing original and very little depth. There are, of course, advertisements and paid links.
As both a consumer of news and information and a journalist, I find them annoying. They waste my time and they take clicks away from legitimate articles like the ones I and my fellow journalists strive to write.
A company called inPowered has a partial solution, at least for articles about companies and products. The idea is to get companies to link to legitimate articles about their products which not only helps the company, but rewards the writers and publications that create those articles.
My first concern about the product is that it might tempt bloggers to write only positive things about products so that they would be promoted by the company, but, according to founder Peyman Nilforoush, the company uses software that measures the engagement of bloggers so that those who are frequently cited will rise to the top. I’m not sure it’s a perfect algorithm but it’s an interesting idea.
And, by the way, the website has an unsual spelling. It’s inpwrd.com.