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It's interesting that so many people would enjoy AMP, because on my Android, viewing AMP sites in Google's main app often feels much slower than regular web bro

It's interesting that so many people would enjoy AMP, because on my Android, viewing AMP sites in Google's main app often feels much slower than regular web browsing in Firefox for Android. The difference? I have an ad-blocker in Firefox, but not in Google's app. So Ad-blocking > AMP > Regular (as far as user-experience from a speed perspective). Obviously Google has a lot of incentive to make sure people don't go the ad-blocking route. Though not sure what is keeping ad-blocking from growing given its superiority - likely just a lack of awareness about the option. If ad-blocking ever did grow massively though, the internet would change in ways we haven't yet seen. Either ad-serving companies would win the arms battle and ad-blockers would become ineffective, or, the web would have to move to a new payment model (Brave-like perhaps). I'm not entirely sure what the ideal is - likely a model where users can choose between ads or micropayments is the most pragmatic world.

shandor 8y ago
I remember this being speculated heavily as one of the most important reasons for Google implementing AMP in the first place.
NiceGuy_Ty 8y ago
Firefox Focus is the fastest android browser experience. I use that as my default browser, and only swap to normal Firefox when using a site I need to login to
scarface74 8y ago
Google AMP on iOS is also much worse than Safari + adBlocker. AMP also leaves out relevant content.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  My beef is that it used to jack the scrolling. I don't know if it still does.
  - trevyn 8y ago
    Considering the percentage of news sites that can't even scroll properly on iOS, I'm not sure this is a bad thing.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    This has been partially fixed. AMP no longer scrolls at a different rate than other websites, but it still doesn't collapse the URL bar when scrolling.
- ljm 8y ago
  A huge pet peeve of mine was that I'd google for something I once saw on Reddit, or maybe I just wanted to see a certain discussion. Google would identify the correct post, but then I'd either get it in AMP or new-redesign format, both of which present a terrible loss in readability (for the most part). With AMP in particular, there was no obvious link back towards Reddit itself. And with the redesign, the actual discussion was interrupted with sections showing what other posts you could read on the subreddit. Similarly, both lost the essential hierarchy and it was really hard to follow the threads of discussion. The whole thing was dreadful compared to using the decade old Reddit design. The modern stuff is crap.
  - robocat 8y ago
    I think the trick is to go to google.com with Desktop Mode (iOS: share page from Mobile Safari then scroll bottom icons left, I think). That: (A) gets Google to return desktop links (rather than cruddy mobile links) (B) gets the site to show the desktop version rather than the cruddy mobile site. It is more obvious how to do it on Android (google.com in Desktop Mode), but I do it on the iPad at work when needed.
    - dwighttk 8y ago
      (iOS, tap and hold on reload button to request Desktop Site)
  - lugg 8y ago
    Heh I uninstalled reddit is fun a while ago to limit my procrastination. Worked well. But I reinstalled after about a week because I search for things on Reddit via Google regularly. Reddit has some disturbing dark patterns going on. You can't view a page on their site without being nudged to use their app. And you're asked every single page view. Like take a damn hint please. I'd be ok with the asking but they use different popups with the "no, go away" answer in different places with different wording. This is all exasperated by AMP, I have to click the amp banner twice to load the real url, this then prompts to open in reddit is fun. Prompts because I want this to happen only sometimes.
drewg123 8y ago
The best of both worlds is to use Firefox to handle the AMP site links from Google Now, or Google Feed, or whatever it is called now. Fast, and with ublock. The only problem I've ever seen is that stories from tomshardware do not load in firefox mobile unless I replace the amp in the URL with a www.
- yorwba 8y ago
  You can use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amp2html/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amp2html/ to have AMP sites automatically redirect to the non-AMP version.

shandor 8y ago

I remember this being speculated heavily as one of the most important reasons for Google implementing AMP in the first place.

NiceGuy_Ty 8y ago

Firefox Focus is the fastest android browser experience. I use that as my default browser, and only swap to normal Firefox when using a site I need to login to

scarface74 8y ago

Google AMP on iOS is also much worse than Safari + adBlocker. AMP also leaves out relevant content.

zapzupnz 8y ago
My beef is that it used to jack the scrolling. I don't know if it still does.
- trevyn 8y ago
  Considering the percentage of news sites that can't even scroll properly on iOS, I'm not sure this is a bad thing.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  This has been partially fixed. AMP no longer scrolls at a different rate than other websites, but it still doesn't collapse the URL bar when scrolling.
ljm 8y ago
A huge pet peeve of mine was that I'd google for something I once saw on Reddit, or maybe I just wanted to see a certain discussion. Google would identify the correct post, but then I'd either get it in AMP or new-redesign format, both of which present a terrible loss in readability (for the most part). With AMP in particular, there was no obvious link back towards Reddit itself. And with the redesign, the actual discussion was interrupted with sections showing what other posts you could read on the subreddit. Similarly, both lost the essential hierarchy and it was really hard to follow the threads of discussion. The whole thing was dreadful compared to using the decade old Reddit design. The modern stuff is crap.
- robocat 8y ago
  I think the trick is to go to google.com with Desktop Mode (iOS: share page from Mobile Safari then scroll bottom icons left, I think). That: (A) gets Google to return desktop links (rather than cruddy mobile links) (B) gets the site to show the desktop version rather than the cruddy mobile site. It is more obvious how to do it on Android (google.com in Desktop Mode), but I do it on the iPad at work when needed.
  - dwighttk 8y ago
    (iOS, tap and hold on reload button to request Desktop Site)
- lugg 8y ago
  Heh I uninstalled reddit is fun a while ago to limit my procrastination. Worked well. But I reinstalled after about a week because I search for things on Reddit via Google regularly. Reddit has some disturbing dark patterns going on. You can't view a page on their site without being nudged to use their app. And you're asked every single page view. Like take a damn hint please. I'd be ok with the asking but they use different popups with the "no, go away" answer in different places with different wording. This is all exasperated by AMP, I have to click the amp banner twice to load the real url, this then prompts to open in reddit is fun. Prompts because I want this to happen only sometimes.

drewg123 8y ago

The best of both worlds is to use Firefox to handle the AMP site links from Google Now, or Google Feed, or whatever it is called now. Fast, and with ublock. The only problem I've ever seen is that stories from tomshardware do not load in firefox mobile unless I replace the amp in the URL with a www.

yorwba 8y ago
You can use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amp2html/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/amp2html/ to have AMP sites automatically redirect to the non-AMP version.