Google’s ‘Accelerated Mobile Page’ Will be Similar to Facebook’s Instant Articles
Google is trying to catch up with Facebook and Apple with Accelerated Mobile Pages that make loading web pages a lot faster on mobile devices. Facebook and Apple have been providing previews so far, and Google has stated that the first accelerated pages will “come early next year”.
The project is similar to Facebook’s Instant Articles, which loads articles by publishers 10 times faster than the standard mobile web, using the same technology that goes into displaying photos and videos quickly. This means the stories are already being pre-loaded in the background as you scroll your News Feed, so it opens quickly when you tap on it, which makes it accessible even with a 2G connection.
Google has employed 4,500 developers working on AMP on Github. The AMP project has drawn in publishers including The Guardian, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and Vox Media. Google has also attracted advertisers like Outbrain, AOL, OpenX, DoubleClick, and AdSense who are developing ads that abide to quick-loading specifications of AMP.
It’ll be interesting to know just how quick-loading mobile pages will be when advertisers begin to push more data intrusive and data-intensive specs over time. For now, you’ll have to wait for early 2016 to have a taste of what accelerated mobile pages will look like.
