In 2020, Google started to deprioritize its Accelerated Mobile Pages format in favor of general site speed and a “page experience” metric. The biggest news publishers are now planning to move away from the Google-backed AMP format.
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Last year, Google announced that Search’s Top Stories carousel will no longer require a website to adopt Accelerated Mobile Pages in order to appear. The move away from AMP continues as Twitter for Android and iOS now just open the regular version of mobile webpages.
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Accelerated Mobile Pages launched five years ago as Google’s plan to speed up the web on smartphones and tablets. It has wide adoption, but a bug in Google Search today sees Safari users in iOS 15 no longer being served the AMP version of sites.
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For the past few years, Google has been pushing a technology called “AMP” that is meant to speed up the mobile web. Now that it’s been widely adopted, though, Google is removing the “AMP” icon from Search results, instead showing the mobile-optimized pages just like everything else.
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Last year, Google announced Search would use page speed and other metrics that better reflect how users experience the web to rank results in 2021. Google today provided more details and a timeline about the upcoming “page experience update.”
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Google is heavily pushing an AMP-based stories format, with last month seeing the launch of a WordPress plug-in and new Web Creators community. Web Stories are now officially coming to Google Discover in a much more prominent manner.
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Besides loading articles quickly, AMP is being leveraged to create a visual medium for sharing content online. Google is now bringing Web Stories to any WordPress site with the wide launch of a new creation tool.
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Google has surfaced AMP Stories since late 2018 to give publishers a way to deliver “news and information as visually rich, tap-through stories.” They currently appear as one-off cards, but Google Discover is now testing a “Stories” carousel.
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Like Android, Google Assistant is also a platform for third-party developers creating apps. Google today is making it easier to build Assistant Actions with new development tools and core platform features, like Continuous Match Mode.
At the start of May, the Chrome team established metrics for building fast websites. Google today announced plans to incorporate “Core Web Vitals,” like page speed, when ranking how sites appear in Search next year.
Google wants the future of email to be less static and more interactive. Its solution based on Accelerated Mobile Pages has found industry support, and “dynamic email” is now coming to Gmail for Android and iOS.
Fast-loading Accelerated Mobile Pages are prevalent on the mobile web, thanks to Google Search. AMP is now coming to Google Images with a new ‘Swipe to Visit’ action that quickly previews and opens the site where a picture result originates from.
Earlier this week at AMP Conf 2019, Google announced that it was now possible for their Accelerated Mobile Pages to display the original page’s URL, despite the site not actually being “served” from that URL. However, in the months that Google has been planning that announcement, Apple and Mozilla have been sharing their concerns about the feature’s impact on the future security of the web.
Since launching three years ago, Accelerated Mobile Pages adoption has flourished across the web and on mobile. Google announced at AMP Conf 2019 today that it is addressing AMP’s biggest complaint by displaying actual website URLs.
Early last year, Google announced AMP for email to allow for more interactive experiences when messaging. These “dynamic emails” will officially begin appearing today on Gmail for desktop with support from multiple senders and other clients.
With Accelerated Mobile Pages, Google set out to deliver a faster web experience on Android and iOS. Developing advertising that worked in a similar fashion was an important step to boost adoption, with Google now displaying AMPHTML ads on non-AMP pages.
Featured Snippets in Google Search provide users with direct answers and are leveraged during voice queries on Assistant and Home speakers. On the web, Google sometimes shows videos queued to the relevant timestamp and is now directly highlighting answers on AMP articles when users click-through to the full answer.
Earlier this year, Google debuted AMP stories to compete with similar formats popularized by Snapchat and also found in Instagram. First appearing in Google Search, they are now available in the Google Feed on Android.
Since its inception, Accelerated Mobile Pages has been criticized as a Google takeover of the web under the guise of speed. Of course, AMP is appreciably faster with wide adoption from a variety of publishers. Google is now hoping to alleviate that concern with an “open governance model” that cedes decision-making to third-parties.
Launched in early 2016, Accelerated Mobile Pages have made their way throughout Google’s various web-facing products and services. Resulting in faster experiences, Google now wants to apply these learned lessons and speed benefits to the rest of the web with new standards.
After introducing the Snapchat-like AMP story format, Google is bringing Accelerated Mobile Pages to emails — in what could “modernize one of the most popular places where people spend their time.” AMP for Email is an open spec that allows for more interactive experiences, with Gmail support expected later this year.
Following in the footsteps of Instagram, Snapchat, and others, Google now allows users to tap through bite-size news stories within its search results page. Here’s how to find and use Google’s brand new AMP Stories…
With the internet going mobile-first, companies and news publications are trying to find new ways to get information online in formats that readers will love. Google’s latest attempt at making this possible is something called AMP Stories. As the name implies, these resemble a mix of Instagram Stories and Snapchat’s Discovery section…
Accelerated Mobile Pages are fast and extremely convenient primarily due to the wide adoption by publishers. However, one common complaint involving URL schemes has existed since its origin, and Google is finally tackling it.
