[user24]

> You can do both, of course, with the use of metatags.

says who? How do you know how Google works? Do they pay attention to metatags any more? Even if we knew they did, the rest of the algorithm is deliberately mysterious to the point that if Site A is ranking higher than Site B, and Site A happens to have more descriptive titles, Site B will start copying that style in the name of "SEO" and you're back to square one. Metatags indeed.

> it is the editor's job to second guess things

That's not what I said. I said it's not the job of editors to second guess search engines.

I think the theory of headlines goes far beyond "here's a summary".