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Google Stories

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Re: Google Stories

#42

Post by blakesterz »

After scrolling for what felt like forever... I finally got down to:

"It’s amazing what you can do with a story. Web Stories can take many forms. The best-in-class examples below provide just a taste of what’s possible in this engaging format."

They have a bunch of examples, so I watched several, hoping to understand how this thing works, and why it's as good as they say. I guess it's a clone of Facebook stories? You somehow piece together a bunch of REALLY short videos or images, and then it makes a little movie. The best-in-class examples were hard to watch, and I can see no reason why I'd ever prefer this format over anything else. Ever. I reallllly don't get why they did this or why anyone would use it.

Re: Google Stories

#43

Post by wisty »

stingraycharles wrote: post #24

Am I the only one who, after reading the landing page, still has no idea what this is? I’ve been watching “immersive” websites for quite some time, mostly marketing-ish websites but also sometimes some special purpose pages from National Geografic or NYT. What exactly is this? A JavaScript/CSS framework? Something like AMP? Or is it a social network like Snapchat? I’m genuinely confused what I’m looking at and feel o…

> What are Stories?

> Web Stories are a web-based version of the popular “Stories” format that blend video, audio, images, animation and text to create a dynamic, less formal consumption experience that goes beyond a simple play button. This visual format lets you explore content at your own pace by tapping through it, or swiping from one piece of content to the next.

It looks like a format to let Google put small web pages with mixed media into search carousels.

Re: Google Stories

#45

Post by nvrspyx »

stingraycharles wrote: post #24

Am I the only one who, after reading the landing page, still has no idea what this is? I’ve been watching “immersive” websites for quite some time, mostly marketing-ish websites but also sometimes some special purpose pages from National Geografic or NYT. What exactly is this? A JavaScript/CSS framework? Something like AMP? Or is it a social network like Snapchat? I’m genuinely confused what I’m looking at and feel o…

From what I gather with a cursory look, it's basically making a Snapchat/Instagram/Facebook story under your own domain as an extension of AMP.

Re: Google Stories

#46

Post by jtsiskin »

mrlala wrote: post #35
stingraycharles wrote: post #24

Am I the only one who, after reading the landing page, still has no idea what this is? I’ve been watching “immersive” websites for quite some time, mostly marketing-ish websites but also sometimes some special purpose pages from National Geografic or NYT. What exactly is this? A JavaScript/CSS framework? Something like AMP? Or is it a social network like Snapchat? I’m genuinely confused what I’m looking at and feel o…

I think they are just trying to make it easy to make a story-like webpage (as you mentioned nat geo or NYT do this at times). However someone with no web experience who just wants to tell a story can't make a complicated site like that. So, it seems like this is just a tool to assist with that. Which is interesting.. however their landing page sure doesn't make it at all clear as to what is going on.

The key part is that it’s hosted by google, and can appear on other google surfaces. So pretty soon google will just show this at the top of the search results, instead of directing you to the website.

At least they’re generous enough to give you some ad revenue from it, unlike featured snippets.

Re: Google Stories

#48

Post by anoncake »

stingraycharles wrote: post #24

Am I the only one who, after reading the landing page, still has no idea what this is? I’ve been watching “immersive” websites for quite some time, mostly marketing-ish websites but also sometimes some special purpose pages from National Geografic or NYT. What exactly is this? A JavaScript/CSS framework? Something like AMP? Or is it a social network like Snapchat? I’m genuinely confused what I’m looking at and feel o…

Based on the description, I think it's like a web page, but you host it yourself, can embed media, link to other web pages, and it can be found using Google.

Re: Google Stories

#50

Post by SingAlong »

I just tried a few things. Sharing notes here incase anyone wants an overview. I tried visiting a few sites that had stories:

* https://nowthisnews.com/stories/paralympic-swimmer-builds-ma...

* https://www.lonelyplanet.com/stories/5-destinations-to-see-w...

What I don't see:

* I visited the home pages of those sites. I'm not sure how to open up stories if I were an internet user just passing by.

* I don't see a way to exit the stories experience other than clicking a link/article

* How to open a story from any web page on a desktop (It is called "Web Stories" so I assumed a few things)

This seems to be build on top of AMP:

* https://amp.dev/documentation/guides-and-tutorials/start/vis...

* https://amp.dev/documentation/guides-and-tutorials/integrate...

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