Poor old Ming Campbell. Literally, “old” Ming Campbell has resigned/been ousted from the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, the UK’s third political party, because he is too old at 66. Supposedly, in this News 24 society, you need to be young, dynamic and good looking in order to attract votes and one of his likely successors is said to be telegenic enough to fit the bill.

Telegenic. What a horrible word, a real cut and shut job (photogenic and television, but the result should mean “produced at a distance”, not “looks good on television”). But it got me thinking … the phrase “search engine friendly” has always seemed so clumsy. So what about “robogenic” as a one-word equivalent, meaning “search engine friendly”, or “looks good to a robot”.

robogenic

search engine friendly; looks good to a robot

I like it. Unfortunately, robogenic should literally mean “Produced by a robot”, in the same way as photogenic literally means “Produced by light”. Ah, so what? I still like it.

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