Google says in a blog post it has worked with publishers and technology companies around the world to make the idea reality. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source, accessible initiative that aims to “dramatically improve” the performance of the mobile web.
With increasing numbers of people turning to ad blockers on mobile devices as well as desktops, Google has decided to fight back by reinventing the Internet on smartphones. The aim is to load rich content like videos and animations “instantaneously” and with seamless performance across every platform.
It has created a new framework called AMP HTML. It is based entirely on existing technologies already supported by browsers and makes it easy for web developers to build lightweight mobile sites that load quickly without sacrificing content.
AMP HTML is also supportive of advertising platforms, combining adverts on pages into the reflowed content so it becomes part of the responsive experience. Page loads are kept smooth by caching content on Google’s servers across the world. The company intends to open its cache platform so it can be used by all publishers free of charge.
Google says slow-loading websites don’t just annoy visitors. They can also damage the publisher’s revenue as people are likely to close the tab if the page doesn’t become responsive within a few seconds. With more news now being read on smartphones than any other platform, fast and responsive mobile-friendly websites are essential for content creators.
Google explains: “Publishers around the world use the mobile web to reach these readers, but the experience can often leave a lot to be desired. Every time a webpage takes too long to load, they lose a reader – and the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscriptions. That’s because advertisers on these websites have a hard time getting consumers to pay attention to their ads when the pages load so slowly that people abandon them entirely.”
Google has worked with companies including Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress, LinkedIn, Adobe and Parse.ly to make AMP HTML a reality. It has already partnered with over 20 of the world’s largest publishers including the BBC, Condé Nast, the Financial Times, The Guardian and Vox Media.
Accelerated Mobile Pages could become the technology to save the mobile web while retaining publisher revenue. Open-source and with numerous influential partners already on board, Google could deploy its massive cache network and expertise in content distribution to eradicate the need for ad blockers and locked-down news readers like Apple News and Flipboard.
Google’s Richard Gingras told Motherboard: “We’re here because we love the web and we feel the web can be better than it is. We can make the web great again.” In other words, Google doesn’t like the idea of people shunning the open Internet for proprietary technologies and has decided to take action while it still can.
It should be interesting to see how publishers begin using AMP HTML on their websites and the impact it has on the smartphone browsers that visit them. Currently, the project is launching as a technical preview and only a few examples of AMP in action are available. You can view them by visiting g.co/ampdemo on a mobile device.
