4 ms·

I have a bad feeling. Google is creating a proprietary version of the mobile Internet, a layer between them and us. Looking at the specs, it's open but paired w

I have a bad feeling. Google is creating a proprietary version of the mobile Internet, a layer between them and us. Looking at the specs, it's open but paired with the AMP cache and Google's ranking algorithm which already clearly prefers AMPed pages it doesn't feel like a free choice. What if I don't want to use Google's AMP cache and rather my own CDN? What if I don't want this useless AMP banner at the top of my AMPed pages which takes 25% of the screen estate for nothing? What if I can build fast mobile sites without following the AMP spec?

pmlnr 10y ago
> What if I can build fast mobile sites without following the AMP spec? Then it's harder for google to make _more_ money out of you. It's all about growth, and since they won search, they are desperately trying to grasp something.
mikecb 10y ago
Cloudflare just launched their own amp cache. Nothing proprietary about this.
- saurik 10y ago
  As far as I can tell, to do this they had to partner with Google, who are the arbiters of what is and is not AMP compatible. This is absolutely "proprietary" and honestly pisses me off even more than if it were only Google's servers in charge of this stuff as now they are screwing with the CDN market as well :/. An open standard is something anyone can implement and be compatible with, without permission.
  - mikecb 10y ago
    You may take from the story what you wish, but afaik, the collaboration you're referring to was informal engineering discussion, not required permission. I can't charitably get to your interpretation from the blog posts or public comments by those at CF.
    - saurik 10y ago
      http://www.businessinsider.com/cloudflare-adopts-google-amp-2017-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/cloudflare-adopts-google-amp-... > So while Google means well here, Prince says, AMP hasn't been as open as publishers were perhaps hoping it would be. You still have to give your content over to Google to take advantage, which is suboptimal for publishers. > This is where Cloudflare swoops back into the picture. By working with Google as the first AMP partner, Cloudflare is contributing to making AMP "a really open standard," Prince says. And this announcement of loading mobile AMP pages seems subtle, but it's the first time that these lightning-quick pages are served out of Cloudflare's system, and not Google's. It's something publishers have been asking for. If it were possible to just host the AMP content using another CDN not blessed by Google it would have been trivial for these publishers--almost all of whom certainly are using CDNs such as Akamai--to host their own content. It is only by being an "AMP partner" that this seems to have been possible. Do you have any evidence on the other side of this? I ask because from my perspective I can't "charitably" get to your interpretation given the reading I did on this subject.
      - mikecb 10y ago
        I think the amp partner term is silly. If akamai wanted to, they could host their own cache. There is no evidence that Google is doing anything but encouraging cdns to do so.
  - dandv 10y ago
    I agree that having access to the original source is valuable. For that reason I went to Cloudflare's original post (as opposed to the Business Insider article you've linked to). Their original post (https://blog.cloudflare.com/accelerated-mobile/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/accelerated-mobile/) links to the AMP cache guidelines on the AMP GitHub repo. The guidelines start like this: > In the AMP ecosystem, the platform that links to content may freely choose which AMP Cache (if any) to use. It is an inversion of the typical model where content delivery is the responsibility of the publisher.
- greenspot 10y ago
  Ok, didn't know and good info. Do you know if it will be treated equally SEO-wise?
  - bsimpson 10y ago
    It's a cache, not an origin.

pmlnr 10y ago

> What if I can build fast mobile sites without following the AMP spec? Then it's harder for google to make _more_ money out of you. It's all about growth, and since they won search, they are desperately trying to grasp something.

mikecb 10y ago

Cloudflare just launched their own amp cache. Nothing proprietary about this.

saurik 10y ago
As far as I can tell, to do this they had to partner with Google, who are the arbiters of what is and is not AMP compatible. This is absolutely "proprietary" and honestly pisses me off even more than if it were only Google's servers in charge of this stuff as now they are screwing with the CDN market as well :/. An open standard is something anyone can implement and be compatible with, without permission.
- mikecb 10y ago
  You may take from the story what you wish, but afaik, the collaboration you're referring to was informal engineering discussion, not required permission. I can't charitably get to your interpretation from the blog posts or public comments by those at CF.
  - saurik 10y ago
    http://www.businessinsider.com/cloudflare-adopts-google-amp-2017-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/cloudflare-adopts-google-amp-... > So while Google means well here, Prince says, AMP hasn't been as open as publishers were perhaps hoping it would be. You still have to give your content over to Google to take advantage, which is suboptimal for publishers. > This is where Cloudflare swoops back into the picture. By working with Google as the first AMP partner, Cloudflare is contributing to making AMP "a really open standard," Prince says. And this announcement of loading mobile AMP pages seems subtle, but it's the first time that these lightning-quick pages are served out of Cloudflare's system, and not Google's. It's something publishers have been asking for. If it were possible to just host the AMP content using another CDN not blessed by Google it would have been trivial for these publishers--almost all of whom certainly are using CDNs such as Akamai--to host their own content. It is only by being an "AMP partner" that this seems to have been possible. Do you have any evidence on the other side of this? I ask because from my perspective I can't "charitably" get to your interpretation given the reading I did on this subject.
    - mikecb 10y ago
      I think the amp partner term is silly. If akamai wanted to, they could host their own cache. There is no evidence that Google is doing anything but encouraging cdns to do so.
- dandv 10y ago
  I agree that having access to the original source is valuable. For that reason I went to Cloudflare's original post (as opposed to the Business Insider article you've linked to). Their original post (https://blog.cloudflare.com/accelerated-mobile/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/accelerated-mobile/) links to the AMP cache guidelines on the AMP GitHub repo. The guidelines start like this: > In the AMP ecosystem, the platform that links to content may freely choose which AMP Cache (if any) to use. It is an inversion of the typical model where content delivery is the responsibility of the publisher.
greenspot 10y ago
Ok, didn't know and good info. Do you know if it will be treated equally SEO-wise?
- bsimpson 10y ago
  It's a cache, not an origin.