Google Is Doing WHAT?

That was the title of the first article featured in Computerworld Magazine’s email blast I got this morning (yes, in a RSS world I still subscribe to several e-newsletters). I immediately clicked on the link that led to a very interesting article that talked about the many other initiatives (beyond search) that Google is involved with.

Here’s how the article, Google Is Doing WHAT?, started:

"With a skyrocketing stock price, fanboy hysteria and – most importantly – really useful products, Google Inc. is the prima donna of tech for the new millennium.

The company is so active that it’s hard to keep track of everything it does. And, just when you get a good handle on its litany of Web applications, promising lab innovations and unheralded research projects, it seems to turn on a dime – a difficult move for a $167 billion company with 19,000 employees – and invent something new. Who would have thought a search site company would get involved in laying a fiber-optic undersea cable between the U.S. and Japan?"

… and the article goes on.

Did you notice what I noticed?

Compared to the headline of the story, the article is pretty sedate and laid-back. As much as we would like to think that we’ve all evolved and aren’t susceptible to grandiose statements, it’s the headline that grabbed me and sucked me in (big time).

It’s an important lesson to state (and restate) – whether you’re writing your own Blog, testing email subject lines or writing copy for your website: headlines count. They count big. I can’t recall the last time I clicked on any articles in this email, but that one really grabbed me.

Here’s the challenge: while the article was great, it was not as great as the headline. This is the problem that most gossip tabloids fall into – you should not. Be bold and brave with you headlines, but keep that voice and killer content streaming through the whole piece.

Be honest, didn’t the Blog title on this post suck you in too?