Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 282. The word origin today is clickbait.
Okay. If somebody wants a screenshot, do it right now. Let's get right to it. Now clickbait can be
something such as attractive headlines to make people want to click on a hyperlink or
possibly an attractive thumbnail on a YouTube video that makes people click on it. The purpose
is usually to generate, to produce, to create ad revenue. You know, because maybe if so many people
click on this maybe they can get more advertising dollars or or something along that line. In both
cases, it tends to be misleading with the content often not directly related to the headline or if
it is it's only like a little bit or somewhat and usually disappointing or thumbnail and often
of questionable value or interest. Yeah. If it really was truly about what they're talking about
you thought it's very interesting. You don't call it clickbait, but it's clickbait because it just
kind of gets you there and then it usually will disappoint you because it'll be about something
different or of little value or little interest. Let's continue. The origin of this term was
invented by Jay Geiger written in a blog post in December 2006. So this term has been around since
that time. The word is actually a portmanteau. Remember when we take two words and we kind of
put them together to form a new word that's a portmanteau, of the words "click" plus "bait."
The word click refers to the clicking on a computer mouse. You know, it makes that
sound you click it. Similar yeah ....So the word bait refers to something that lures or attracts
the user in a similar way that cheese is used as bait to catch a mouse,
thus the attractive content attracts the user to click on his computer mouse and is thus baited.
Okay. All right. And we got four examples to show just how this is used. Here's the first one.
Typical clickbait headlines are "this is the cutest thing ever. " So I don't know maybe a
lot of people want to say oh is it ? Well let me see. What's so cute about it ? Learn how to lose
weight fast. A lot of people are overweight and you know, well what let's just click on it. Let
me see maybe they can tell me something. Okay. How to make big bucks doing ... You know, so
yeah everybody wants to make money. So you might just click on it just to check
it out . The tragic end to that celebrity and maybe some famous person you know you say yeah.
Whatever happened to that person ? How come I don't see them anymore. I don't know what
they're going to say whether it's true or it's not true , but they get you to click on it,
The biggest mistake you will ever make etc. So oh biggest result let's see what somebody did. So
they get you to click on it. Number two. Clickbait is a marketing tactic using curiosity to pull the
internet users to click on links and videos. So yeah it's just the marketing tactic method.
Number three. Many videos will often have thumbnails of scantily-clad pretty women.
Yeah. So women not wearing much clothes or very revealing clothes or practically half-naked
to get people to click on a video usually with content that has little to no connection to the
thumbnail. Remember the thumbnail that's the picture that you see when you click on a video.
So somebody well oh pretty girl. Let me see this can i see more of her ? Is it more
revealing ? Something I'm sure a lot of men do that , but but you know, who knows ? Even
a woman might do it , but they get you to click on it. So this is this is definitely clickbait.
All right. Number four. Clickbait continues to be used because it has proven to work.
It gets a lot more people to to click on it and
you know, maybe somehow or another that might add up to more ad revenue. Anyway, I hope you
got it. I hope it's clear. I hope it was very informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.