Google has announced a new method of mobile publishing which will dramatically decrease page-load time in the ongoing fight against ad-blocking.
The project, Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP), could see the average page-load speed of mobile articles drop from eight seconds, according to Facebook, to ‘near instant as possible’.
AMP is currently being used by a range of news publishers and technology companies, including BBC News, Buzzfeed, Twitter, Parse.ly and Adobe Analytics.
A new era
AMP-enabled articles will be featured as a carousel of stories at the top of search results, but stripped down code and Google caching will mean, when clicked on, the page will load almost instantly.
Editorial content will be given priority over ads when loading, and also limit advertiser formats to “any formats that don’t detract from the user experience,” says Google, meaning pop-ups and ‘stick-ads’ will no longer be in the picture.
However, Google maintains it wants to support a “comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies”, enabling any publishers using AMP HTML to retain their choice of ad networks, subscription & paywall models and elements of rich media.
The project is available open source, allowing publishers to create original content while employing shared components UX and performance.
Ad blocking
Speaking to Marketing Week, Google’s head of news products, Richard Gingras, said that ensuring advertising can be maintained on the mobile web while not detracting from the user experience is vital.
“Our core objective here is how do we create experiences on the mobile web for our users that are speedy, engaging and indeed allow for that very important self sustaining model of advertising or in other cases paywalls.”
Meanwhile, the Guardian’s chief strategy officer, Tony Danker, described ad blocking an “industry-wide problem”.
“Readers are not spending hours discriminating between sites based on their speed, they punish each of us for the sins of the whole ecosystem.”
Danker added that AMP will only work it has a “critical mass” of publishers, platforms and advertisers, urging all parties to come together to collaborate on a new phase of web publishing fundamentals.