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AMP for email is a terrible idea

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91–100 of 483 posts

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#91
Is this how they try to increase profits now?

Given the decline of everything Google lately, I can actually see it happening. But going for full profits instead of what made them good so far, will just be one of the final nails in the coffin.

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just a hypothetical, but if you were to assume that Google had no ill will here and was actually trying to make stuff better for users - what do you think the best way would be for people working at Google to do this? I.e. say you worked on the gmail team, you really cared about users, you thought amp for email would be good for users, how would you go about making this happen in the world? genuinely curious if its e…

The fact that no one has a specific answer for the simple "what would you do to launch this if you worked at Google?" really says something.

Your hypothetical element of being pro-user makes it hard, because it requires a great deal of fantasy to support.

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just a hypothetical, but if you were to assume that Google had no ill will here and was actually trying to make stuff better for users - what do you think the best way would be for people working at Google to do this? I.e. say you worked on the gmail team, you really cared about users, you thought amp for email would be good for users, how would you go about making this happen in the world? genuinely curious if its e…

The fact that no one has a specific answer for the simple "what would you do to launch this if you worked at Google?" really says something.

I wouldn't "launch this" because it's not needed in the first place. You should accept email for what it is. The same point the article is defending.

> and was actually trying to make stuff better for users

Now, if we're talking about making communication between users better than yeah you need to go beyond email. E2E, open protocol, something like jmap (imap sucks), focus on privacy and interoperability, yada yada, so many better stuff to "fix" before trying to amplify my inbox and adding more rendering issues between platforms. Do you see a trend? You're now treading a thin line between chat apps, social networks, Android instant apps and glorified iframes. And introducing a whole new set of problems at the same time, not to mention the monumental effort required for something like this to keep backward compatibility (just so you can still call it email and use the superset). And getting the implementation right the very first time.

I too want the worst problems of using email to be solved but since nobody wants to adopt open protocols and work with each other (or eee the whole thing a year later), like history showed us time and time again, it won't happen. So again, let's at least no lose what we have now.

(Sorry I'm a little tired so my writing is bad)

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#95

AMP is, to begin with, Google exerting its market power to extend its control over others’ content. Facebook is doing it, so Google has to. As a consumer, I actually love AMP. Everytime I click a news link on mobile and am taken to AMP, I'm relieved to be free from the extremely distracting original websites. Google has done a lot of exciting work on open standards like JSON-LD [0] and Microdata [1] to bring a better…

As a consumer I like the speed of AMP but hate the usability of it (ever try sharing a link? ugh).

As a developer and a content creator? I absolutely hate it. Not only is my content hosted outside of my control but they give them a visual weighting in Google search results. So now, if I want my content to have the best chance to be seen, I have to use AMP.

I wish they would have just made AMP a framework or build system that out spit out optimized web pages. Instead they force us to use their CDN which also has multiple trust issues.

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#96
post #7

Good luck! I had the "pleasure" of working on HTML emails a few months back. It was unbelievably painful. Getting even a simple email to display consistently across a dozen different mail clients is a huge pain. This is why so many marketing emails use giant images for everything--it's the simples way to get consistent rendering. I predict whatever Google launches will work in GMail, and GMail only.

Sometimes I think e-mail should have just stayed plain text. No HTML renderers or other fancy stuff. Just type what you want to say and to whom and send. You know what does fancy marketing "e-mails" really well without all the horrid HTML hackery? It is RSS (or Atom).

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#97
post #57
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When using gsuite, I am the customer.

I have always wondered - is there someone you can chat with or call for GSuite?

Yes. It was my first and only call with Google tech support. Noticeably outsourced, but competent after escalation.

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#98
post #40

Everybody had a computer that could run any program, but used only their web browser, so they made the web browser pretend to be any program, but then everybody had a web browser that could run any program, but used only webmail, so they made webmail pretend to be any program? Where does that end? Or are these ”engaging, interactive, and actionable email experiences.” more limited than the current web applications? I…

> Also, I guess all clicks in those experiences will go through Google’s servers.

And therein lies the motivation. Why would all these Gmail users want to be clicking on web apps that aren't hosted on and monetized by Google, when they could be doing all these things inside Gmail?

Re: AMP for email is a terrible idea

#100
post #43

Devin Coldewey against a bunch of Google employees, who will win? (sarcasm) On a more serious note, if the idea of AMP is so bad as many people attest. How is that the "bad idea" passed over so many people at a company that praises itself of hiring some of the most smartest people in the field? Hyperbole, the author of this article is just generalizing. Maybe AMP for email works for some people, making it a good idea…

> How is that the "bad idea" passed over so many people at a company that praises itself of hiring some of the most smartest people in the field? The fact that Google produced AMP played a nontrivial part in me rejecting their job offer - I didn't want my work to be judged by the engineering standards of an organization that continues to staff and promote AMP.

Consider me seriously impressed by that stance.
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