Weblines..the missing art of interesting and creative headlines

A thought-provoking piece on the headlines today- written to be ranked highly by the search engines rather than to be meaningful and erudite.

The Media Equation - Taylor Momsen Did Not Write This Headline - NYTimes.com: "Keep in mind that all of the things that make headlines meaningful in print — photographs, placement and context — are nowhere in sight on the Web. Headlines have become, as Gabriel Snyder, the recently appointed executive editor of Newsweek.com, “naked little creatures that have to go out into the world to stand and fight on their own.”

Some of them are a little more naked than others.

"“Taylor Momsen Goes Pantsless, Curses on Morning Television” suggested a headline on The Huffington Post’s “most popular” feature on Friday. She didn’t actually appear bottomless, but that’s part of the trick of writing digitally snappy headlines. It seems almost tasteful next to an MSN take: “Taylor Momsen Vomits On-Stage, Wants to Be Kurt Cobain.”

The Huffington Post knows its way around search engine optimization, or S.E.O. as it’s known. A story about whether the president would play golf with Rush Limbaugh was headlined: “Obama Rejects Rush Limbaugh Golf Match: Rush ‘Can Play With Himself.’” It’s digital nirvana: two highly searched proper nouns followed by a smutty entendre, a headline that both the red and the blue may be compelled to click, and the readers of the site can have a laugh while the headline delivers great visibility out on the Web."