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> Instead of granting premium placement in search results only to AMP, provide the same perks to all pages that meet an objective, neutral performance criterion
by mburst 9y ago
> Instead of granting premium placement in search results only to AMP, provide the same perks to all pages that meet an objective, neutral performance criterion such as Speed Index. Publishers can then use any technical solution of their choice.
Hasn't Google gone on record saying that AMP doesn't affect search results given the same page load speed for non-AMP sites?
- zentiggr 9y agoExcept that AMP pages are often in the band of promoted results that show above the remainder of the search results, at least in the mobile app. And are prominently icon'ed in the desktop results. So yeah, Google's not honest about this.
- yegle 9y agoFrom my test the AMP icon in Google's search result is gone (Chrome, Android, Incognito tab). Disclaimer: I work for Google but not on AMP product.
- dontnotice 9y agoGoogle can display the results they want in any fashion they see fit, it's their website/apps and their publishing/curation is protected by the first amendment.
- seandougall 9y agoThe First Amendment gives them the legal right to curate results as they wish without interference by the U.S. government. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that other people aren't allowed to get pissed off. I don't think the letter authors were calling for an Act of Congress. My read is that they were calling attention to the damage that AMP does to the content providers. And perhaps they could have put more emphasis on the fact that it's in Google's long-term interest not to bleed content providers dry.
- dontnotice 9y agoThey seem to suggest that Google's control over their own site's design/function is somehow an affront to their cause, not mention malicious. They certainly see it as a big enough grievance to include in a manifesto type document which repugnantly entitled.
- angus-prune 9y agoFree speech cuts both ways. You seem to suggestthat OP's control over their own site content (ie the manifesto) is somehow an affront to your belief in google's free speech. You certainly see it as a big enough grievance to write a comment on HN which is repugnantly entitled. They get to pass comment on google's behaviour (a comment which, incidentaly, a lot of people seem to agree with). You get to pass comment on their behaviour. I get to pass comment on your behaviour. Holding people and companies to account in a soft manner, without resorting to force (legislation counts as force) is an important aspect of a functioning free society. The freedom of speech is not freedom from criticism but freedom to criticise.
- smt88 9y agoSpeech is protected. Anti-competitive business practices are not.
- dontnotice 9y agoThey are certainly entangled in this instance. It's funny how everyone's a legal scholar these days.
- dx034 9y agoIf you can make your page load as fast as an AMP page you'll probably get ranked there as well. But that's really not easy to achieve. The reason Google can say they don't prefer AMP is because AMP is extremely fast (esp with high latency)
- scotchio 9y agoI personally don't believe it. Does anyone actually believe a fancy AMP powered site isn't getting nice traffic boost from Google?
- wmeredith 9y agoYou’d have to be pretty daft to take their word for it. Google hasn’t played fair in the search space in over a decade.
- mimsee 9y ago> Does anyone actually believe a fancy AMP powered site isn't getting nice traffic boost from Google? If they were to get a nice traffic boost, would it be because the site actually loads faster or because it was ranked higher. I think both would increase the traffic boost.
- scotchio 9y agoBut the question is do the speed changes made (only regarding adding AMP) effect the PageRank
- cube2222 9y agoWell, they may not be risking it, as the EU would happily give em another monstrous fine for that.
- SquareWheel 9y agoIt's true that AMP doesn't affect organic search rank. What's misleading about that statement though is that Google displays a carousal specifically for AMP results. They'll probably do away with the carousal eventually, but for right now an AMP page does have an advantage in search.
- hknd 9y agoThe carousal displays both, amp and non-amp content.
- SquareWheel 9y agoDoes it? Then I may be misinformed (I very rarely use mobile). If that's true, and amp doesn't have any preference in the carousal, then Google's comments are completely accurate.