5 ms·

The reason for AMP is surveillance capitalism. If you absolutely, positively believe you have to track your users, writing simple web pages is not an option. Y

The reason for AMP is surveillance capitalism. If you absolutely, positively believe you have to track your users, writing simple web pages is not an option. Your choice is either the status quo (pull in lots of third-party cruft), or having a fast-loading page where Google runs the tracking and advertising infrastructure.

hawkice 10y ago
Wait, THAT'S why people want to use AMP? I set up AMP on my personal site for a couple weeks because I thought there was an SEO benefit (I didn't see any, so I removed it -- lowering page weight by something like 7x). I had no idea that the reason it seemed pointless was because it was for ad infrastructure.
- kybernetyk 10y ago
  Funnily enough the AMP version of my page is larger and takes longer to load than the non-amp version. And ironically I don't even get that little "amp" bolt symbol because it's a software product page and not a recipe, news post or blog post (there's only a handful of categories that are amp enabled). I think I'm going to remove the AMP page, too. It offers nothing to me and is actually worse for my visitors than the normal responsive page.
  - hawkice 10y ago
    Same here. My blog is (unsurprisingly) text-based, so the 40-50kb JS file was almost all of the page weight.
    - lucb1e 10y ago
      Hold on, "accelerated" pages mean "add 45KB of data"?
      - luctus 10y ago
        You need to add [this js file](https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js) that is near to 45KB. I have just uploaded an AMP version for my site and it felt a little bit ridiculous... I made a simpler version (with no js and limited css), changed `<img>` for `<amp-img>` and added this js. It would load even faster without this js!!
- skybrian 10y ago
  Advertisers (as a whole) have a veto on what advertising-driven websites can do since they write the checks. So I think the idea is that it's a compromise that users, websites that depend on ad revenue, and advertisers will all accept, since they all get something they want. If any of them are too unhappy then the new standard won't succeed.
billiam 10y ago
This. It's a CDN based on Google replacing the thicket of tracking companies.
josho 10y ago
> Google runs the tracking and advertising infrastructure Oh, is that what this is all about? AMP caching is a mechanism to extend Google's lock-in on user tracking. Smart, in an evil sort of way.
- nostrademons 10y ago
  Seems a little unlikely, given that Google Analytics is already on 50-60% of the Internet and many mobile apps. Analytics is a much more effective tracking mechanism than AMP.
  - __derek__ 10y ago
    Google Analytics is supported by AMP.[1] [1]: https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/extended/amp-analytics.html https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/extended/amp-analy...
    - nostrademons 10y ago
      Right, but my point is that between Google Analytics, Chrome, and Doubleclick, Google is already tracking basically every pageview on the Internet. There's no need to introduce yet another product to accomplish this. I think a far more likely explanation is to take Google's statement that they want to accelerate the mobile web at face value. When people view pages faster, they view more of them, which in turn means that they search more, they click on more ads, and Google makes more money. This makes far more sense to me as a direct revenue play than as a surveillance/tracking play.
      - mcintyre1994 10y ago
        I think a lot of it is a response to Facebook's instant articles too. They were beginning to build up a story where the fastest version of the Web is via the Facebook app, not the browser and not search. It doesn't take a huge amount more before that story becomes a threat to search.
      - 10y ago
manigandham 10y ago
It's completely optional to run any Google stuff on AMP pages.

hawkice 10y ago

Wait, THAT'S why people want to use AMP? I set up AMP on my personal site for a couple weeks because I thought there was an SEO benefit (I didn't see any, so I removed it -- lowering page weight by something like 7x). I had no idea that the reason it seemed pointless was because it was for ad infrastructure.

kybernetyk 10y ago
Funnily enough the AMP version of my page is larger and takes longer to load than the non-amp version. And ironically I don't even get that little "amp" bolt symbol because it's a software product page and not a recipe, news post or blog post (there's only a handful of categories that are amp enabled). I think I'm going to remove the AMP page, too. It offers nothing to me and is actually worse for my visitors than the normal responsive page.
- hawkice 10y ago
  Same here. My blog is (unsurprisingly) text-based, so the 40-50kb JS file was almost all of the page weight.
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    Hold on, "accelerated" pages mean "add 45KB of data"?
    - luctus 10y ago
      You need to add [this js file](https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js) that is near to 45KB. I have just uploaded an AMP version for my site and it felt a little bit ridiculous... I made a simpler version (with no js and limited css), changed `<img>` for `<amp-img>` and added this js. It would load even faster without this js!!
skybrian 10y ago
Advertisers (as a whole) have a veto on what advertising-driven websites can do since they write the checks. So I think the idea is that it's a compromise that users, websites that depend on ad revenue, and advertisers will all accept, since they all get something they want. If any of them are too unhappy then the new standard won't succeed.

billiam 10y ago

This. It's a CDN based on Google replacing the thicket of tracking companies.

josho 10y ago

> Google runs the tracking and advertising infrastructure Oh, is that what this is all about? AMP caching is a mechanism to extend Google's lock-in on user tracking. Smart, in an evil sort of way.

nostrademons 10y ago
Seems a little unlikely, given that Google Analytics is already on 50-60% of the Internet and many mobile apps. Analytics is a much more effective tracking mechanism than AMP.
- __derek__ 10y ago
  Google Analytics is supported by AMP.[1] [1]: https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/extended/amp-analytics.html https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/extended/amp-analy...
  - nostrademons 10y ago
    Right, but my point is that between Google Analytics, Chrome, and Doubleclick, Google is already tracking basically every pageview on the Internet. There's no need to introduce yet another product to accomplish this. I think a far more likely explanation is to take Google's statement that they want to accelerate the mobile web at face value. When people view pages faster, they view more of them, which in turn means that they search more, they click on more ads, and Google makes more money. This makes far more sense to me as a direct revenue play than as a surveillance/tracking play.
    - mcintyre1994 10y ago
      I think a lot of it is a response to Facebook's instant articles too. They were beginning to build up a story where the fastest version of the Web is via the Facebook app, not the browser and not search. It doesn't take a huge amount more before that story becomes a threat to search.
    - 10y ago

manigandham 10y ago

It's completely optional to run any Google stuff on AMP pages.