Kill Google AMP Before it Kills the Web

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
Joined
Oct 29, 2000
Messages
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When I first discovered Google's AMP pages on my phone, I was bothered by them. Instead of the pages being hosted on the sites I expected, they were somehow cached on an unintelligible Google link, and now there was an extra menu bar on my screen for AMP, taking up screen real-estate. Something about this method just felt wrong, almost as if I was being tricked by a man in the middle attack, rather than seeing the page I want directly from the site hosting it. What's worse? As a user, you can't turn it off. You get it whether you want it or not, at least as long as you use Google as your search provider. Content providers on the other hand can choose whether to participate or not, and Scott Gilbertson over at The Reg has an editorial up regarding why they shouldn't.

What it is, is a way for Google to obfuscate your website, usurp your content and remove any lingering notions of personal credibility from the web.

If that appeals to you, here's what you need to do. First, get rid of all your HTML and render your content in a subset of HTML that Google has approved along with a few tags it invented. Because what do those pesky standards boards know? Trust Google, it knows what it's doing. And if you don't, consider yourself not part of the future of search results.
 
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Google's AMP sucks for all site owners, and they leverage search result rankings to try to force you to use it. What Google doesn't seem to care about, and I assume they realize this and are doing intentionally, is that they are effectively reducing traffic to their content providers (ie. AMP compliant websites that Google rips content from to display on Google domain pages). When traffic is reduced to the sites that create the content that Google rips, those sites lose users, lose traffic, lose prominence, and lose ad revenue. It's a lose, lose, lose, lose situation for website owners, and a BIG WIN only for Google.

I am guessing that Google's end game for AMP is to drive the value of the best content providers down, so Google can either acquire the content provider at a low price, or put the content provider out of business and replace it with a Google website. In the short term, Google's game is of course to generate more ad revenue with the various relevant advertising, because that's where virtually all of Google's revenue comes from.

Google is not the genius, omnipotent IT company that some people think it is though (Marisssa Mayer helped prove that). They just happened to get into the web ad game at the right time and cornered that market. They now make enough $ from ads that they can afford to throw $ at whatever they want and create an unlimited number of G+ and Google Glass failures. So, maybe Google doesn't have an end game here, and they're just trying to rape all of the best content providers for short term ad revenue, and Google doesn't care about how their "scorched net", "web fracking" content ripping activities will destroy the best content provider websites.
 
ZeqOBpf6 said:
Amp sucks for users. I don't get it and don't see the value. It seems like pages load reasonably quicker but the hassle of not being able to find the link or break out of their stupid giant amp bar isn't worth it.
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Exactly! Great points. It all around sucks for end users too and offers no real value to them. Page load improvements are negligible these days considering the fast net speeds we have, and the advancements in web publishing optimization. So, the end user is left with inability to get a damn URL and trying to break out of AMP jail.
 
Google amp was such a terrible horrifically bad experience for me, preventing me from zooming in on my phone, from sharing links (from freaking sharing my links!!!!!), and forcing me to view the blogs I like to read through that awful crap, that it drove me to change my default search engine. Because it was literally the only way to stop that awful forced utter bullshit.

So way to go Google. You got me to use duck duck go. Yes. You heard that right. My default search engine is now duck duck go. All because of Google amp. Great job Google!!! Way to go buds!!!
 
Sent a very nasty email to Google about amp, essentially telling them that their a bunch of idiots... to fire everyone and start over.
 
5icko said:
Sent a very nasty email to Google about amp, essentially telling them that their a bunch of idiots... to fire everyone and start over.
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Hopefully you took the time to word it better than this before calling THEM idiots.....
 
Fuck AMP and fuck Google for even thinking about pushing this shit on us. I'm already sick and tired of having to weed through the goddamn search results to avoid this crap. It seems like every day I find some new, assinine "feature" or service that a company has changed (looking at you MS Outlook and your dumbass "focused" inbox) that serves no purpose but to irritate me.
 
Biznatch said:
Hopefully you took the time to word it better than this before calling THEM idiots.....
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Can you please tell me how everyone should be like you when making a complaint? You're so smart... can we all be like you?
 
Spidey329 said:
Sounds like a terrible deal. So you'd essentially create content for Google for free.
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That's what people are doing for Microsoft if they use Windows 10, which sends personally-generated usage data to Microsoft on the spied-on people's own dime: PC system hardware, electricity, software licenses, time, personal activity. It's called unjust enrichment.

"Unjust enrichment is a legal concept referring to situations in which one person is enriched at the expense of another in circumstances which the law treats as unjust."
 
Google has been trying to pull a Microsoft for a while now. Good thing they haven't really been pushing hard for it. It rubs me the wrong way as a user and as a web dev.
 
Honestly, I can't even see how this is legal. Google should be happy with any kind of "referral" they can get from listing the page in the search result. I think it's only a matter of time before one of the bigger content providers bites back and sues Google for lost revenue. How is it that Google can try and lay claim to the entire internet without the government going after them for antitrust? MS essentially triggered the antitrust with IE and OS dominance, while Google can run wild with the #1 browser, phone OS, search engine, video site, email, and God knows what else? Anyone else feel like MS did a fraction of the shit Google has?

(Sent from my Android, on the Chrome mobile browser)
 
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Flapjack said:
Honestly, I can't even see how this is legal. Google should be happy with any kind of "referral" they can get from listing the page in the search result. I think it's only a matter of time before one of the bigger content providers bite back and sue Google for lost revenue. How is it that Google can try and lay claim to the entire internet without a the government going after them for antitrust? MS essentially triggered the antitrust with IE and OS dominance, while Google can run wild with the #1 browser, phone OS, search engine, video site, email, and God knows what else? Anyone else feel like Google is getting away with murder while MS got hung out to dry?
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Indeed. I think the trick is Google's bread and butter is manipulating people in many, many ways. They've infiltrated people's minds with a search engine that's been more like a brochure for a decade now, and a wildly popular mobile data mining OS. They literally control what billions see, read, know, think.
 
duckduckgo.com

Solves most these google problems. Now if I could just figure out an alternative to Android that wasn't complete utter shit or just as limited, I'd be golden.
 
B2BigAl said:
Fuck AMP and fuck Google for even thinking about pushing this shit on us. I'm already sick and tired of having to weed through the goddamn search results to avoid this crap. It seems like every day I find some new, assinine "feature" or service that a company has changed (looking at you MS Outlook and your dumbass "focused" inbox) that serves no purpose but to irritate me.
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Yes! WTF Microshit are they doing. Now I have to check both focesed and other, just so I don't miss any email now. STUPID IDIOTIC idea ever in the history of email.

Edit: Ok I found a way to turn off focused/other inbox.

Go to Options, then Under Layout, select Focused Inbox, and select don't sort messages.
 
Can comfirm I hate AMP with a passion. When i find a search result and get forced to use an AMP site and the site will not let me fucking zoom in to be able to read the thing it pisses me off. Not to mention it is just some generic looking 'mobile optimized' crap that looks nothing like the legit site and has a fracking giant AMP banner taking up space (def. thought it was some poorly done weird phishing or fake site redirect bs the first time lol), doesn't have all the pages of the real site, and is hard as hell to read. Fucking ridiculous. And this is a Google thing? How did Google make something this shitty???
 
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dgz said:
Indeed. I think the trick is Google's bread and butter is manipulating people in many, many ways. They've infiltrated people's minds with a search engine that's been more like a brochure for a decade now, and a wildly popular mobile data mining OS. They literally control what billions see, read, know, think.
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They literally don't decide where you go online... I wont even touch on the idea that they control what people think.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
They literally don't decide where you go online... I wont even touch on the idea that they control what people think.
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Do as you like. I am stockpiling tinfoil for hats, blankets, and whatnot
 
BloodDonor said:
Anyone got a screenshot of this? I'm not getting anything like this
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Search the mobile version of google search for almost anything, your top results are likely going to have the AMP symbol after them:

upload_2017-5-20_18-13-46.png


Then when you tap on the link to go to the page, it loads from google instead of loading directly from the content hosters page (in this case, Engadget)

upload_2017-5-20_18-15-5.png



You can still visit the original source by tapping on the weird icon in the AMP bar, but doing so adds two extra taps to load it from its original source:

upload_2017-5-20_18-15-42.png
 
Also note the complete lack of branding in the posted screenshots. You'd have no idea of where the content originally came from unless you could read English.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Search the mobile version of google search for almost anything, your top results are likely going to have the AMP symbol after them:

View attachment 25435

Then when you tap on the link to go to the page, it loads from google instead of loading directly from the content hosters page (in this case, Engadget)

View attachment 25436


You can still visit the original source by tapping on the weird icon in the AMP bar, but doing so adds two extra taps to load it from its original source:

View attachment 25437
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I had no idea there was any way to load the actual page not the horrible amp page. I'll just stick to my original solution. Which was to stop using Google search.
 
ahh cheers, I get a few links with it... not all though, might be a localisation issue though why I dont get as many
 
Using the correct "they're" would be a good place to start before calling someone an idiot....
 
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