Author Archives: David Besbris

Celebrating AMP: A year in review

A lot can happen in a year when people unite around a common cause.  In the case of the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, born out of conversations with European publishers through the Digital News Initiative, that means improving the mobile web for everyone. In a world where we rely on nearly 7 billion small screens that’s a tall order--but we’re toasting the first anniversary of AMP with progress the entire initiative can feel good about.

From day one, a key focus for AMP has been speed.  Slow loading sites are arguably one of the most frustrating things about the mobile web. Recent Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a site that fails to load in three seconds or less. That’s the worst of all worlds for users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.

For publishers, who were the first to get on board with AMP, the benefits of fast-loading content are super-tangible. Inthis case study, the Washington Post reported a 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.

And in this case study, one of Europe’s biggest native advertising platforms, plista, conducted its own experiment among premium publishers like n-tv.de, faz.net, abendzeitung.de, and golem.de to measure AMP’s impact on web app widget speed and profitability. Average click-through rates for publishers improved by 220%, while one saw an increase of 600% after the implementation of AMP.

To date the AMP project has been a story about momentum. This is clear in everything from the pace of releases of the open source code to the number of participants embracing the AMP format. From Pinterest to Reddit to Bing and Ebay, reports of success after adopting AMP have rolled in in recent months.

At Google, we’re doing our part too. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. And this month we’re excited to be rolling out that faster experience to mobile users across Europe.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP gif

Today AMP pages load from Google Search in less than one second on average. Beyond just saving time with fast loading pages, AMP also saves data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover news content, retail, travel, recipes, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

The open source initiative is thriving because there is a strong community behind it getting involved in everything from working groups to contributing to the Github page with suggestions, feedback and code spec.

While the first year of the AMP Project has gotten off to a good start, there still remains a lot of work ahead.  This roadmap is a good way to stay up to date on what is happening next. We look forward to returning in a year’s time with even more awesome progress as we work together to make the web great for everyone.

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org. For more product advancements from the Digital News Initiative, check out digitalnewsinitiative.com.

Celebrating AMP: A year in review

A lot can happen in a year when people unite around a common cause.  In the case of the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, born out of conversations with European publishers through the Digital News Initiative, that means improving the mobile web for everyone. In a world where we rely on nearly 7 billion small screens that’s a tall order--but we’re toasting the first anniversary of AMP with progress the entire initiative can feel good about.

From day one, a key focus for AMP has been speed.  Slow loading sites are arguably one of the most frustrating things about the mobile web. Recent Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a site that fails to load in three seconds or less. That’s the worst of all worlds for users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.

For publishers, who were the first to get on board with AMP, the benefits of fast-loading content are super-tangible. In this case study, the Washington Post reported a 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.

And in this case study, one of Europe’s biggest native advertising platforms, plista, conducted its own experiment among premium publishers like n-tv.de, faz.net, abendzeitung.de, and golem.de to measure AMP’s impact on web app widget speed and profitability. Average click-through rates for publishers improved by 220%, while one saw an increase of 600% after the implementation of AMP.

To date the AMP project has been a story about momentum. This is clear in everything from the pace of releases of the open source code to the number of participants embracing the AMP format. From Pinterest to Reddit to Bing and Ebay, reports of success after adopting AMP have rolled in in recent months.

At Google, we’re doing our part too. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. And this month we’re excited to be rolling out that faster experience to mobile users across Europe.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP gif

Today AMP pages load from Google Search in less than one second on average. Beyond just saving time with fast loading pages, AMP also saves data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover news content, retail, travel, recipes, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

The open source initiative is thriving because there is a strong community behind it getting involved in everything from working groups to contributing to the Github page with suggestions, feedback and code spec.

While the first year of the AMP Project has gotten off to a good start, there still remains a lot of work ahead.  This roadmap is a good way to stay up to date on what is happening next. We look forward to returning in a year’s time with even more awesome progress as we work together to make the web great for everyone.

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org. For more product advancements from the Digital News Initiative, check out digitalnewsinitiative.com.

Celebrating AMP: A year in review

A lot can happen in a year when people unite around a common cause.  In the case of the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, born out of conversations with European publishers through the Digital News Initiative, that means improving the mobile web for everyone. In a world where we rely on nearly 7 billion small screens that’s a tall order--but we’re toasting the first anniversary of AMP with progress the entire initiative can feel good about.

From day one, a key focus for AMP has been speed.  Slow loading sites are arguably one of the most frustrating things about the mobile web. Recent Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a site that fails to load in three seconds or less. That’s the worst of all worlds for users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.

For publishers, who were the first to get on board with AMP, the benefits of fast-loading content are super-tangible. In this case study, the Washington Post reported a 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.

And in this case study, one of Europe’s biggest native advertising platforms, plista, conducted its own experiment among premium publishers like n-tv.de, faz.net, abendzeitung.de, and golem.de to measure AMP’s impact on web app widget speed and profitability. Average click-through rates for publishers improved by 220%, while one saw an increase of 600% after the implementation of AMP.

To date the AMP project has been a story about momentum. This is clear in everything from the pace of releases of the open source code to the number of participants embracing the AMP format. From Pinterest to Reddit to Bing and Ebay, reports of success after adopting AMP have rolled in in recent months.

At Google, we’re doing our part too. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. And this month we’re excited to be rolling out that faster experience to mobile users across Europe.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP gif

Today AMP pages load from Google Search in less than one second on average. Beyond just saving time with fast loading pages, AMP also saves data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover news content, retail, travel, recipes, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

The open source initiative is thriving because there is a strong community behind it getting involved in everything from working groups to contributing to the Github page with suggestions, feedback and code spec.

While the first year of the AMP Project has gotten off to a good start, there still remains a lot of work ahead.  This roadmap is a good way to stay up to date on what is happening next. We look forward to returning in a year’s time with even more awesome progress as we work together to make the web great for everyone.

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org. For more product advancements from the Digital News Initiative, check out digitalnewsinitiative.com.

Search results are officially AMP’d

Along with many others in the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, we’ve been working to make the mobile web experience faster. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. Today we’re excited to announce that we’re rolling out that faster experience to users across the world.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP-Result-v3-CellPhoneCase.gif
Today, the median time it takes for an AMP page to load from Google Search is less than one second. Beyond just saving you time with fast loading pages, AMP will also save you data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites such as eBay (US),Reddit (US), Shopify (CA), Konga (Nigeria), WikiHow (US), Cybercook (Brazil),Skyscanner (UK), and many more from all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover retail, travel, recipe, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org.

Source: Search


AMPing up in mobile Search

Access to information is at the heart of Google’s mission. Unfortunately, today, the mobile web isn't living up to the expectations people have for getting the information they need, particularly when it comes to speed. In fact, data shows that people abandon websites after just three seconds if the content doesn't load quickly—which is bad not just for people trying to get what they want online, but for the publishers who want those readers to enjoy the content they've created for them. That's why, last October, we joined others across the industry on the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP for short), an open source initiative to make the mobile web as fast as possible.

Mobile phone displaying news content

In just over four months, AMP has come a long way, with hundreds of publishers, scores of technology companies and ad-tech businesses all taking part in this joint mission to improve the mobile web for everyone. And starting today, we’ll make it easy to find AMP webpages in relevant mobile search results, giving you a lightning-fast reading experience for top stories.

Now when you search for a story or topic on Google from a mobile device, webpages created using AMP will appear when relevant in the Top Stories section of the search results page. Any story you choose to read will load blazingly fast—and it’s easy to scroll through the article without it taking forever to load or jumping all around as you read. It’s also easy to quickly flip through the search results just by swiping from one full-page AMP story to the next.

AMP is great for browsing the web on mobile devices, because webpages built with AMP load an average of four times faster and use 10 times less data than equivalent non-AMP pages. In many cases, they’ll load instantly. It's how reading on the mobile web should be—fast, responsive and fun.

While helping people find fast AMP content through Google Search is a significant step, there’s still a lot of work ahead for the open source AMP Project. Still, it’s been thrilling to see how the industry has come together to work on this common goal of making the mobile web great for everyone. And given the potential AMP holds for other types of content, we’re excited about what the future holds.

AMPing up in mobile Search

Access to information is at the heart of Google’s mission. Unfortunately, today, the mobile web isn't living up to the expectations people have for getting the information they need, particularly when it comes to speed. In fact, data shows that people abandon websites after just three seconds if the content doesn't load quickly—which is bad not just for people trying to get what they want online, but for the publishers who want those readers to enjoy the content they've created for them. That's why, last October, we joined others across the industry on the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP for short), an open source initiative to make the mobile web as fast as possible.

Mobile phone displaying news content

In just over four months, AMP has come a long way, with hundreds of publishers, scores of technology companies and ad-tech businesses all taking part in this joint mission to improve the mobile web for everyone. And starting today, we’ll make it easy to find AMP webpages in relevant mobile search results, giving you a lightning-fast reading experience for top stories.

Now when you search for a story or topic on Google from a mobile device, webpages created using AMP will appear when relevant in the Top Stories section of the search results page. Any story you choose to read will load blazingly fast—and it’s easy to scroll through the article without it taking forever to load or jumping all around as you read. It’s also easy to quickly flip through the search results just by swiping from one full-page AMP story to the next.

AMP is great for browsing the web on mobile devices, because webpages built with AMP load an average of four times faster and use 10 times less data than equivalent non-AMP pages. In many cases, they’ll load instantly. It's how reading on the mobile web should be—fast, responsive and fun.

While helping people find fast AMP content through Google Search is a significant step, there’s still a lot of work ahead for the open source AMP Project. Still, it’s been thrilling to see how the industry has come together to work on this common goal of making the mobile web great for everyone. And given the potential AMP holds for other types of content, we’re excited about what the future holds.

Introducing the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, for a faster, open mobile web

Smartphones and tablets have revolutionized the way we access information, and today people consume a tremendous amount of news on their phones. Publishers around the world use the mobile web to reach these readers, but the experience can often leave a lot to be desired. Every time a webpage takes too long to load, they lose a reader—and the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscriptions. That's because advertisers on these websites have a hard time getting consumers to pay attention to their ads when the pages load so slowly that people abandon them entirely.

Today, after discussions with publishers and technology companies around the world, we’re announcing a new open source initiative called Accelerated Mobile Pages, which aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web. We want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads, and to load instantaneously. We also want the same code to work across multiple platforms and devices so that content can appear everywhere in an instant—no matter what type of phone, tablet or mobile device you’re using.

The project relies on AMP HTML, a new open framework built entirely out of existing web technologies, which allows websites to build light-weight webpages. 

Over time we anticipate that other Google products such as Google News will also integrate AMP HTML pages. And today we’re announcing that nearly 30 publishers from around the world are taking part too.

This is the start of an exciting collaboration with publishers and technology companies, who have all come together to make the mobile web work better for everyone. Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress.com, Chartbeat, Parse.ly, Adobe Analytics and LinkedIn are among the first group of technology partners planning to integrate AMP HTML pages.

In the coming months we’ll work with other participants in the project to build more features and functionality focused on some key areas:

  • Content: Publishers increasingly rely on rich content like image carousels, maps, social plug-ins, data visualizations, and videos to make their stories more interactive and stand out. They also need to implement ads and analytics in order to monetize the content and to understand what their readers like and dislike. The Accelerated Mobile Pages Project provides an open source approach, allowing publishers to focus on producing great content, while relying on the shared components for high performance and great user experience. The initial technical specification—developed with input and code from our partners in the publishing and technology sectors—is being released today on GitHub.
  • Distribution: Publishers want people to enjoy the great journalism they create anywhere and everywhere, so stories or content produced in Spain can be served in an instant across the globe in, say, Chile. That means distribution across all kinds of devices and platforms is crucial. So, as part of this effort, we’ve designed a new approach to caching that allows the publisher to continue to host their content while allowing for efficient distribution through Google's high performance global cache. We intend to open our cache servers to be used by anyone free of charge.
  • Advertising: Ads help fund free services and content on the web. With Accelerated Mobile Pages, we want to support a comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies. Any sites using AMP HTML will retain their choice of ad networks, as well as any formats that don’t detract from the user experience. It’s also a core goal of the project to support subscriptions and paywalls. We’ll work with publishers and those in the industry to help define the parameters of an ad experience that still provides the speed we’re striving for with AMP.

We hope the open nature of Accelerated Mobile Pages will protect the free flow of information by ensuring the mobile web works better and faster for everyone, everywhere.