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Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

alexkras.com

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Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#211

Post by ryandrake »

dkersten wrote: post #100

> Google was injecting a large toolbar at the top of the snapshot encouraging users to get back to Google search results (a functionality already provided by the back button) I learned, through a series of usability tests my (former) startup ran amongst its users, that most non-tech people do not click the back button and get very confused if your pages don't have their own back/forward/close/menu navigation. We move…

Fascinating. Shows the importance of actually testing and measuring. I would have guessed the reverse, that everyone is used to the "back" button by now and almost nobody would bother looking for a needless extraneous one actually contained in the site.

I'd be interested in learning what these users do when faced with a site without navigation links. Do they just close the browser and re-type the original URL?

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#212

Post by catshirt »

dkersten wrote: post #171
catshirt wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i question the validity of your test and/or it's application in the current context. what I am hearing is "the average non-technical person incapable of using Google."

These people weren't incapable of using Google or computers. Some users were business-types who are used to using a lot of web-based SaaS tools and quite capable and comfortable using computers. By non-technical I really meant they weren't developers; they were sales, marketing and management type people. When asked, it simply didn't occur to most of them to simply press the back button. Now, its not apples to apples…

but how they use your application is not a reflection of how they use the web at large.

i'm not surprised by your study's result, I'm just not sure you can extend your conclusion to believe that people won't or can't click the back button to return to Google after clicking a result.

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#213

Post by josho »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #209
josho wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an outsider observing the US election the statement of yours "Don't vote for candidates next month receiving large donations from Google" strikes me as ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, your logic is correct. But, in order for politicians to play the game they need large donors like Google. So, if they don't take money from Google they'll just take it from someone else with an agenda. The real solution is to vote fo…

Realistically, you will never get a majority of US legislators to agree that giving US legislators money is a bad idea. Unsurprisingly, when Congress moves to increase the salary of Congress, the bill tends to pass with flying colors. ;) Therefore, your best bet is to get regulations against Google by electing people paid by someone else, then later get regulations against that someone else by electing people paid by…

> Realistically, you will never get a majority of US legislators to agree that giving US legislators money is a bad idea.

While the electorate is bickering over distractions like this cycle you are correct. However, limiting special interest influence strikes me as a non-partisan issue, so if the citizens spoke up I think they'd have sufficient influence.. But, then maybe I'm being an idealist. Regardless, your short term solution works.

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#214

Post by [deleted] »

tboyd47 wrote: post #144
AJ007 wrote: post #138

"I hope I am not being too hard on Google." -- no, the author is being very, very nice. Google has a strong business interest in users never going to other sites. Between AMP & voice search, the future is going to be very rough for businesses that rely on free search traffic. In practical business terms I would strongly suggest website owners build ultra-light versions of their sites. If you have international aspira…

How do you suggest publishers who are dependent on traffic from Google cope with AMP in the short-term? It seems like there is no way to compete with AMP-enabled content on Google ranking except by adopting AMP.

[deleted]

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#215

Post by bitmapbrother »

josho wrote: post #203
bitmapbrother wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMP doesn't "break" the img tag. It's more optimal to use the amp-img tag for AMP pages, but if you use img instead it's not going to break your page. >And why, why would they break the img tag‽ https://www.ampproject.org/docs/guides/amp_replacements

As far as I can tell the amp-img tag doesn't add anything that img doesn't already support. The page simply mentions some vague statement about needing to understand the page layout, but uses the same attributes as img.

Did you click the support first-viewport preloading link?

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#216

Post by boto3 »

josho wrote: post #203
bitmapbrother wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMP doesn't "break" the img tag. It's more optimal to use the amp-img tag for AMP pages, but if you use img instead it's not going to break your page. >And why, why would they break the img tag‽ https://www.ampproject.org/docs/guides/amp_replacements

As far as I can tell the amp-img tag doesn't add anything that img doesn't already support. The page simply mentions some vague statement about needing to understand the page layout, but uses the same attributes as img.

embrace, extend and extinguish

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#217

Post by Pxtl »

I assume Google ads that are served through AMP will still count. In that case, you can think of AMP as a high-speed static host where you still get paid even though you didn't pay for hosting. But I agree it's very surprising behavior to the actual owner of the website.

The usability downside of providing a link to the actual webpage should be obvious - Google is trying to pretend this is the actual webpage. Why would they want a redundant link just to confuse the users?

That said, ever since Android separated google results view from chrome and added that strange "x->back" button thing I keep getting tripped up from a usability perspective. That's more the Android team being silly again, not just AMP, I think.

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#218

Post by Pxtl »

dkersten wrote: post #100

> Google was injecting a large toolbar at the top of the snapshot encouraging users to get back to Google search results (a functionality already provided by the back button) I learned, through a series of usability tests my (former) startup ran amongst its users, that most non-tech people do not click the back button and get very confused if your pages don't have their own back/forward/close/menu navigation. We move…

Oh. That's why Google has the insane "Google and X to back" behaviour. I guess they assume power-users will use the Chrome browser and newbies will use Google and need the redundant X-bar.

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#219

Post by arprocter »

romanovcode wrote: post #55

I think that this whole AMP thing is horrible for the web. It's like Google is not dictating how one should build/style their websites. Thanks, but no thanks. Stay evil, Google.

It makes really long and ugly URLs too.

Fortunately there's only one site I read regularly that uses AMP - Google News

Re: Google May Be Stealing Mobile Traffic

#220

Post by rch »

blowski wrote: post #193
rch wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But content isn't really valuable anyway. If there's less of it, then I'll make breakfast a few minutes earlier - that's all.

Since I've searched for the content, these are not ads but real content that match my search query which site owners have asked Google to render. If, despite matching my search query, the content is not what I'm looking for, then it helps me as a user to know that sooner rather than later.

What are these searches? I mostly see AMP on sites found through Google News (or other aggregators like HN).
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