Medium: You Need to Fix Your Two Minute Read Algorithm
It is not producing accurate read/view data
I write a fair number of short-short pieces, mostly on my publication Short & Snarky.
Everything I write there and elsewhere that is labeled “2 min read” gets roughly half the read/view ratio of my other stuff.
Sure, maybe it’s because my short pieces are crummy. But I really don’t think so.
So I tried an objective experiment to see how long it would actually take to read a “2 min read”. These examples are not cherry-picked to prove my premise. They are the four most recent “2 min read” posted on ILLUMINATION.
it took me 29.47 seconds to read this “2 min read” . . .
it took me 29.42 seconds to read this “2 min read” . . .
it took me 35.52 seconds to read this “2 min read” . . .
it took me 19.76 seconds the read this “2 min read” . . .
You could DOUBLE any of those read times, and they STILL AREN’T “2 min reads”.
(This article was just labelled a “2 min read”. I just timed it at 43.29 seconds.) I look forward to seeing its read/view ratio, and will edit this article in a couple of days to report the result.
Until then, please Medium, take a look at this issue. I know for many who don’t write short-shorts this isn’t an issue. But for many others I suspect it is.
Thank you,
Jeff
Addendum: I’d love to hear from Kurt Gasbarra on this. Kurt posts many (very nice) “1 min reads” that probably take 15–20 seconds to read — that’s all he needs. Kurt, are you getting views but no reads on any of these? Thank you if you find this.
