I agree, BUT one thing that has blown my mind and forced me to reconsider a lot of this stuff that that women make 70-80% of consumer purchases. So, if you are advertising, you are pretty much advertising to women. The ruination of Reddit made no sense to me, Facebook made no sense to me, Instagram, etc. all that nonsense made no sense to me, until I realized that ALL of that stuff is for women. Seen in this light it seems to make more sense and not be so "silly" after all.
True and now imagine that 70% of the web is accessed through mobile devices today. The format of these web stories is basically identical to a vertical phone, I think they exist so mobile users browse through more content more quickly.
These decisions may not seem to make much sense for us now because browsing on a desktop always feels more efficient but they aren't designed to be efficient for us, they are supposed to be efficient for a somewhat desinterested mobile phone user who was going to click away but now he or she sees a flashy little story and thinks "eh ok, I'll watch what they want". Google may even envision a future where the normal search list results are an advanced feature and regular users all prefer to click on stories because that's where all the offers and gimmicks and easy to digest information is in. Ever since I underestimated TikTok, I am a little more careful to dismiss these new developments. In a way, these mini stories are another variation of tiktok mini stories.
[0] https://www.inc.com/amy-nelson/women-drive-majority-of-consu...