As we all know, smartphones and tablets have completely transformed the way people access information. As a modern society, we now consume huge amounts of news on our phones. Publishers all over the world make use of the mobile web to reach these millions of users, but the experience can frequently leave much to be desired. Every single time a web page takes too long to load, the readers lose interest—as well as the opportunity to earn proceeds through advertising and subscriptions. This is due to the fact that advertisers on these sites have a tough time getting consumers to look at ads when the pages take so long to load that people exit them entirely.
Google has recently announced a new open source initiative known as Accelerated Mobile Pages – or AMPs. AMPs aims to drastically improve the overall performance of the mobile web. Their goal is for web pages with quality content like video, graphics, and animations to work together with smart ads, and to load instantly. They also wished to make the same code to work across many different devices and platforms, which will enable content to appear everywhere in an instant—no matter the type of smartphone, tablet or mobile device you are using.
The project depends on AMP HTML. This is an innovative open framework which is built entirely from existing web technologies, which lets websites create light-weight webpages.
Some of the key area that Google is focusing on includes:
- Content: Publishers rely on quality content more and more. This includes image carousels, social plug-ins, maps, videos, and data visualizations to make their stories more interactive and prominent. They also need to implement ads and analytics to adapt the content and comprehend what their readers do and do not like. The AMPs Project provides an open source approach. This allows publishers to focus on the production of great content, while simultaneously relying on the common components for high performance and epic user experience.
- Distribution: Publishers want users to enjoy the great writing they create anywhere and everywhere. For instance, content that is created in Spain can be broadcasted in an instant all over the world. Thus, distribution across the various types of devices and platforms is critical. So, as part of this effort, Google has designed a new approach to caching. The new approach allows the publisher to proceed with the hosting of their content while allowing for efficient distribution via Google’s high-performance global cache.
- Advertising: Ads are responsible for funding the free services and content that we find online. With AMPs, Google will be able to support an inclusive range of ad networks, ad formats, and technologies. Any websites making use of AMP HTML will retain their choice of ad networks, as well as any formats that do not diminish the user experience.