back to article Google AMP supremo whinges at being called out on team's bulls***

The creator and lead developer of Google's news-sucking AMP service is unhappy about being called a liar. Malte Ubi responded Monday morning to a blog post written by Irish web developer Jeremy Keith in which Keith called Google out for painting its service as something for the greater good rather than a corporate money-making …

  1. Martin Summers Silver badge

    AMP is shit. Kill it with fire!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      So why does El Reg (amongst many others) publish AMP-formatted pages? And why do so many people voluntarily view them?

      Because, like it or not, they respectively dramatically increase reach, and leave out masses of pointless bloat-ridden scripts and other crap. Two things which are not unrelated.

      1. Orv Silver badge

        It's possible to make fast mobile pages without AMP, but AMP enforces restrictions that tend to result in fast pages. And I admit they are fast, although I don't like the proprietary nature of them or the sqidgy navigation that comes from rewriting a lot of the normal browser UI in Javascript.

        The whole "bug not a feature" comment is probably a reference to how Google has, at least in theory, set things up so people other than them can run AMP caches. As far as I know no one has, because why would they? But that fig leaf is there to make it look less like an attempt to create a Google-dependent version of the web.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Take a look at El Reg's AMP version vs m.register if you want an example of Google doing something absurd and the world asking "how high?"

          m.register is faster than AMP, if other publishers are saying "oh wow, our pages load 300% faster" it's because they didn't know how to design (mobile) websites in the first place.

          Yet El Reg is obliged to make an AMP version otherwise it won't get listed at or near the top.

          Also worth noting that Google saying this is open source. It always is, at the start. Then the open source part disappears.

        2. tiggity Silver badge

          I don't view AMP pages as, with JS disabled, they look hideous and navigation fails big time.

          .. JS is usually disabled on my browsers.

          For fast load times just have ******* vanilla HTML and no crud (with large images on thumbnail click demand only, not pulled in by default)

      2. Adam 52 Silver badge

        "So why does El Reg (amongst many others) publish AMP-formatted pages?"

        Because they bring in Ad revenue and new readers. At least short term.

        "And why do so many people voluntarily view them?"

        Because they appear first in the Google search results.

        "Because, like it or not, they respectively dramatically increase reach, and leave out masses of pointless bloat-ridden scripts and other crap. Two things which are not unrelated."

        I think they are unrelated. The increased reach is due to prominent positioning in Google search, nothing else. Nobody goes scrolling past a conventional page to find an AMP version of the same thing. If I were a competition regulator I'd be looking long and hard at an attempt to control news publishing by using a near monopoly in the web search space.

        1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

          If I were a competition regulator I'd be looking long and hard at an attempt to control news publishing by using a near monopoly in the web search space.

          AFAIK the Knitting Lady is looking at it based on complaints from some of the usual suspects in Germany. None of the English speaking media even dared to consider emitting a squeak which speaks volumes about the power of the G00G.

      3. Ben Tasker

        So why does El Reg (amongst many others) publish AMP-formatted pages? And why do so many people voluntarily view them?

        It's not always voluntary.

        If you hit a link on Twitter to (say) Ars Technica on a mobile device - you'll almost certainly go to the AMP page first, and then have to click a link to go to the properly formatted version.

        Aside from AMP pages being unadulterated dogshit (IMO) one of the common complaints about it is that there's no way to opt-out of being served the AMP crap.

        They've got more reach because of the way Google is pushing them - it doesn't automatically mean that AMP is a better solution. It's more than possible to create a page that'll load quickly on a mobile without AMP, and doesn't even take that much effort.

        If you like AMP pages, that's fine. The difference is, that those of us who don't like them are getting them pushed with no way to say once (whether per-site, or globally) that we'd actually rather have the full-fat version of the site. IMO it's as, if not more, annoying than the sites that insist on loading a modal to say "We see you're on a mobile, why not install our app?" every time you visit.

  2. David 132 Silver badge

    Not directly relevant, but..

    ...for those who are puzzled - as I used to be - by the references in this article and elsewhere to "Kool-Aid" and "Jim Jones", I can *highly* recommend this PBS documentary on the Youtubes:

    American Experience - The Jonestown Massacre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elrV-14_m5w

    Worth watching if you want an appropriately terrifying Halloween-time reminder of how a single charismatic individual can inspire, subvert and ultimately, destroy a large group of people.

    <poker face> Thank goodness nothing remotely comparable has happened since or could ever happen again.</poker face>

    1. a pressbutton

      Re: Not directly relevant, but..

      I tried to buy a Boris Johnson facemask, but couldn't find one

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    i must be missing something

    I find AMP pages have trouble loading and are therefore slower than regular ones (on my mobile device).

    I have tried a few times and its always the same ... now i avoid the AMP stamped links in google.

    Oh and i use chrome on my mobile too (its even signed into my google account most of the time).

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I fucking hate AMP, with a burning, fiery passion. It's ugly, slow and not what I wanted to see when I clicked on the link.

    See also: mobile apps coming with their own embedded browsers so they can harvest all that sweet, sweet metadata.

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "In other words, Google was talking to itself in the mirror." AMP --> WAP for the 2010's?

    Didn't work out too well.

    As for Google, well it seem you really do have to have absolutely no critical facilities or knowledge of other IT systems whatsoever to.

    Is anyone thinking "sounds like a Microsoft employee."

  6. Ivan Vorpatril

    DeAMPify

    is an app available in the play store for android. When turned on, it will access the original source and skip the AMP version that is clicked on. (I probably have explained it poorly, but it works).

    1. TonyJewell

      Re: DeAMPify

      Yes, DeAMPify works well. For searches in the browser, set your search engine to encrypted.google.com - no more AMP results (for now).

      1. danbuben

        Re: DeAMPify

        Good shit

  7. JimC

    Google imagines itself ... more important than ... people creating

    > Google imagines itself, as the aggregator of other people's content,

    > as more important than the people creating that content. And, sadly,

    > in terms of reach, they are.

    Nothing new there. Its the whole big advertising ethos that only silicon valley megacorps are allowed to earn money and the creators can go starve.

  8. RyokuMas
    Devil

    AMP is basically the first step on the slippery slope that leads from SEO to content control. Now not only do you have to have all the Google-approved tags and trackers on your page in order to hit those the top spots on the results page (the only ones that 90-odd percent bother with), but now on mobile, you have to present your content in the way Google want, using their proprietary, non-standard markup.

    Meantime you also have Google trying to dictate what ads you can and cannot see - again, another step on that slippery slope towards controlling and censoring what we can and can't see on the internet.

    1. Mr D Spenser

      Gobsmacked

      The other night I booted up an old laptop to help track down an issue on another machine. Google noticed that the date time on my machine was off by a couple of years and politely refused to answer my queries until I reset it to the current day.

      Really Google? Have you become so arrogant that forcing me to set my clock a particular way seems OK to you or that you are so clueless that you don't understand why that is bad behavior.

  9. m0rt

    AMP will die

    It will disappear. It will be quietly dropped, or rather given a new name, which is similar to the name of another project, then they will be 'merged for efficiency', then that will be it. Quietly dropped.

    The web is a mess. Pages of trackers and ads, which ironically, google is king at, and it has had its toll. We have faster computers to serve ever more complex pages, to ever more complex computers/tablets and we are in a loop of 'progress' without any real refinement.

    Someone will come along to, excuse me for this, 'disrupt' the current thinking. When that happens people will flock to that, the ease of use, transparancy, speed, simplicity. Then the entire loop begins again...

    1. danbuben

      Re: AMP will die

      Can't wait for this to happen. Also wonder what the new MEGA PLAYERS will be like

  10. Andy Roid McUser

    Let it die

    AMP needs to be retired.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Freetard alert

    So happy to be reading this on el Reg. A site of purity with absolutely no profit motive and thus -> no ads. I am sure the kind hearted soul who wrote this article doesn't receive one nickel for his efforts.

    Also love to read the Freetard comments on this... the typical Trump'esque stuff such as - "we are bigly, everyone else is not". So much substance here ;)

    1. Hollerithevo

      Re: Freetard alert

      And your point is?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Freetard alert

        I thought it was obvious...

        People on these forums whine about businesses doing business. How stupid is this?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Freetard alert

      I suppose I'm now obligated to coin the term "feetard". It's the perfect label for just about anyone who utters the word "freetard" as an attempt at insult.

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

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