Now here’s a siren call to geeks: A post titled “What Do You Know, Anyway?” and picturing a seeming babe in glasses. It’s a quiz, over at Silicon Alley Insider. Can you say, “Clickbait?”

Quizzes are hot, hot, hot. There are seemingly zillions at Facebook. But this one stands out for enticing the geek to click through to an even bigger picture of the babe—that’s 610 x 457 pixels—and link to “start the quiz.”

Click. Click. Click. Each new question is another pageview. Each pronouncement of judgment about the question’s rightness or wrongness is another pageview. SAI also offers a link to a story that further explains the answer. Geek clicks through and it’s yet another pageview.

As I post, there are 7 comments to the quiz, and none are about the questions. They’re all about the girl. Geez, get a life, dudes. Seriously.

Commenter “The Doctor” nails it: “It’s really interesting to see what kind of babes geeks (self included) will click on. 

Why did I click it, by the way? Well, the woman isn’t my type, and I know what I know—or arrogantly think—so my reason was different. Editorial instinct: There was no description or other indication what was behind the link.

Definitely, the woman and headline go oddly together, as does the only conceivable purpose of the quiz: clickbaiting. Is this what blogging is coming to? Yes, it is, which raises another topic about blogging and journalism conflicts of interest; I’ll get to that one soon. For now, I have to acknowledge SAI’s seductive approach to racking up pageviews.

Do you have a new media story that you’d like told? Please email Joe Wilcox: oddlytogether at gmail dot com.