Hacker News Reader

How exactly is that? Giving you a link to the news media web site does extract money from them?

Link previews (headline, image, blurb) are a substitute good. Many would-be eyeballs never click through. Big tech profits, news media dwindles.

Yet the code targets all links, not previews, just links. This is a cash-grab.

News sites can opt out via robots.txt if they don't want to be in Google's listings.