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Web consultant Barry Adams has written a blog post about the problem with Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and how to fight against it being shoehorned into the WWW.
Let’s talk about Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP for short. AMP is a Google pet project that purports to be “an open-source initiative aiming to make the web better for all”. While there is a lot of emphasis on the official AMP site about its open source nature, the fact is that over 90% of contributions to this project come from Google employees, and it was initiated by Google. So let’s be real: AMP is a Google project.
Google is also the reason AMP sees any kind of adoption at all. Basically, Google has forced websites – specifically news publishers – to create AMP versions of their articles. For publishers, AMP is not optional; without AMP, a publisher’s articles will be extremely unlikely to appear in the Top Stories carousel on mobile search in Google.
And due to the popularity of mobile search compared to desktop search, visibility in Google’s mobile search results is a must for publishers that want to survive in this era of diminishing revenue and fierce online competition for eyeballs.
If publishers had a choice, they’d ignore AMP entirely. It already takes a lot of resources to keep a news site running smoothly and performing well. AMP adds the extra burden of creating separate AMP versions of articles, and keeping these articles compliant with the ever-evolving standard.
So AMP is being kept alive artificially. AMP survives not because of its merits as a project, but because Google forces websites to either adopt AMP or forego large amounts of potential traffic.
And Google is not satisfied with that. No, Google wants more from AMP. A lot more.
AMP is also purported to throw in an 8-second delay to punish those that do not toe the line.
Earlier on SN:
Google Attempting to Standardize Features of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) (2018)
Kill Google AMP Before It Kills the Web (2017)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @10:42AM (14 children)
Almost every site I visit is getting slower and less functional, many to the point of being broken. Comments on one site only show up sporadically, on another they now require js to read and they dont show up right, email notices from another are being delayed by hours or days making me miss out...
Then there is this recent foray of twitter/fb/etc into censorship... I think those sites are dying and trying to drag the rest down with them somehow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @10:45AM (2 children)
And reddit's decline goes without mention.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @02:18PM (1 child)
Does that make your post redundant? I mean, really, if something goes without mentioning, then what was the point...?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:58PM
Not necessarily. It may have gone without mention, until mentioned by the GP AC. His observation was that it had gone without mention, however, subsequent to his post, we can now say it has been mentioned. Therefore, not redundant for the implied reason. Although, it's likely redundant by the probability that a previous post, or possibly the unread article had previously made mention pointing out Reddit's decline.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday September 08 2018, @01:29PM (7 children)
I wouldn't even mind the JS if it weren't so badly abused. Almost every site these days MUST have text/graphics bouncing and bobbing around like something from Microsoft Bob. With in-page popovers asking me if I want to take a survey, close that and something pops out from the left asking if I want to sign up for stuff, content is script generated so it is impossible to print and even if it did all the mobile "washed out" colors come out too light to read, all of the links are JS links so I can't bookmark or open in a new tab or window, and if a single script fails to run then there is no content AT ALL.
Bring back HTML 3 and send "modern" web designers back to kindergarten.
Quite frankly this entire AMP things sounds like Microsoft HyperHelp all over again. Pushed down everybody's throats, not needed, and impossible to get rid of.
(Score: 3, Funny) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday September 08 2018, @01:52PM (4 children)
Hmm... are you sure you mean Microsoft Bob [wikipedia.org]? My recollection is that was pretty sedate. A little dog walking around, and a dialog box popping up periodically (those most of them required you to click on something to get a pop-up). I think you might mean Clippy [wikipedia.org], who did have a penchant for bouncing and bobbing around in the corner of your screen... and saying things like "It looks like you're trying to write a suicide note! Would you like help?"
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday September 08 2018, @03:24PM (1 child)
In my infinite boredom I considered cloning that UI for an Android app (program launcher, etc). I have better things to do, but I did seriously consider it. I'm not stupid enough to get a copyright violation from stealing the original artwork and sound clips, but if I do too much myself people will just think I invented it all myself like that TempleOS project written by an internet-semi-famous dude.
I remember LOLing at the time of MS Bob over the typical "old guy failing in attempt to be cool" where they had a "slacker cat" as one of the avatars in Bob. That's the kind of thing where do I try to modernize and make my own "slacker cat" theme which only people around 50 with good memories will get although it would be deliciously retro, or should I modernize with modern theme, like I could have a over the top stereotypical SJW avatar for people to laugh at "I see you're trying to start the gmail app, but first you need to check your white male privilege". I gotta be careful saying stuff like that, that'll probably get embedded into SystemD or windows11 for realsies.
I used NovaLauncher for many years on my Android phone, it was superior to the provided android launcher; I just thought it would be a fun challenge to write my own "bob-alike launcher" for my phone. May yet do it someday for the LOLs.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @08:14PM
If Poettering has to take some extra time to check his privelege before every commit, would that be a bad thing?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday September 08 2018, @03:27PM
I was, in fact, thinking of some other more animated children's software, but no one would have recognized the names. It's really says something about modern web design when they have made it many magnitudes worse than good old Microsoft Bob.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2018, @10:16PM
I can see why someone would want to write a suicide note after getting frustrated with having this silly paperclip bobbing around their screen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 08 2018, @07:34PM
Please send them back to kingergarden! Maybe the will learn about use of color to make color to make panels readable! Super looking guy blue on white is 100% non-readable
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2018, @03:21PM
Some of these concerns could be addressed in the browser were to impose a "speed limit" on javascript, especially something user controllable, to slow down these infinite unblocked loops that spin incessently, if it gets really abusive, really slow them down a lot or halt them. This could prevent the javascript from eating up CPU and punish these bad scripts.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday September 08 2018, @03:17PM (2 children)
This is just ONE of the reasons i support THIS site.
Quickest load in the west.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Saturday September 08 2018, @03:26PM (1 child)
I'd expect we'd get more "Fr1st po5t!!!" BS but maybe I'm just filtering it out really well or its not cool anymore?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday September 08 2018, @07:56PM
Or the average age level is higher here?
*shrugs*
Seems like our first posts are either really intelligent/insightful or trolls which get modded down fast.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---