Live data from Hacker News

Please Make Google AMP Optional

alexkras.com

131–140 of 457 posts

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the disadvantages (vendor lock-in, not as open, etc) outweigh the advantages (lighter pages, which you can just do without AMP anyway).

how does AMP provide vendor lock-in?

Because now there's a big back button as well as a browser back button both back to Google, instead of just a browser back button and a menu to explore the rest of the site.

Google is no longer neutral, they own those users, not you.

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#132
post #118

There's a lot of complaint about Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles, e.g. walled garden, anti-open-web and whatnot. Here's something simpler from a non-developer, average-consumer point of view. I recently began taking BART to work daily (new job). For those who don't know, BART is Bay Area's subway system, and (at least on the east bay side) cell reception is notoriously spotty. When I'm on the train, which in…

But why do this when those of us in the (rest of the) world where the mobile internet works properly do not need it?

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#133
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think its comparable to Apple. Apple is trying to make the user experience of existing content better (where it is located) Google is taking the content and serving it themselves. The problem is sites being slow in the first place, but Apple isn't commandeering the content itself like Google is by creating a mode where the browser can enhance legibility of any article.

>Google is taking the content and serving it themselves. How is Google taking the content? Isn't it the creator that is publishing their content using AMP?

Google is grabbing a normal website and completely, utterly breaking it. Have you ever actually tried to use an AMP page, share it, etc?

AMP is garbage, and honestly whoever signed off on it shouldn't have a position at Google or wider tech community.

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#134
post #54

Google Search on Mobile is no longer a web search engine that hyperlinks to the resulting page, but rather an search-integrated newsreader that loads itself when you click on a result that's marked with AMP. This is understandably a big change from how things used to be, but it isn't going to get better anytime soon. After all, most people on mobile spend their time inside apps, probably from some Google competitor l…

"on mobile" these days is a device with a quad core, 3GB of RAM, and a 1080p + screen.

I don't want your stupid "mobile" website that doesn't work, your cut-down "optimized" walled-garden product.

I just want the normal web, in all its glory.

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#136
post #36
post #3

I never really understood why google amp is bad. Can anyone explain the reason why people think its ethically bad?

>Can anyone explain the reason why people think its ethically bad This is just one of many reasons, but try this on a mobile phone. Go to Google and search for "Trump" Note what choices you have to pick from without excessive scrolling. They all end in either ads or Google urls. Click one of the featured stories in the carousel, almost guaranteed to be an AMP site. Seems to be a prerequisite to sit in the carousel. L…

For some reason I'm not experiencing the same at all.

I googled "Trump". First five stories in carousel (wapo, bbc et all) are not AMP. I see only one AMP link in the first page results. Click on it, page loads. Swipe right/back button gets me to Google results (as expected). Is it because I'm on an iPhone and this is an Android thing?

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#137
post #23
post #21

I suggest stop using google search altogether. https://duckduckgo.com/ is an excellent search engine and its trivial to make a google search via `!g` prefix when you are not finding what you are looking for.

I moved off of gmail a few months ago, pretty happy about that but man duckduckgo fucking suuuucks. Really wish there was a nonprofit (with a strong privacy policy) wikipedia like .org solution that provided good results.

https://startpage.com (there are others) is a good way to get google results without directly feeding the beast.

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#138
post #26

AMP is bad and anyone who's invested in it should feel shameful for making the internet a worse place.

I feel that way about the web ecosystem in general. I want Google Kingmaker Curation about as much as I want web "apps" with MB of JavaScript because some cargo culting webdev loves him some frameworks.

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#139
post #23
post #21

I suggest stop using google search altogether. https://duckduckgo.com/ is an excellent search engine and its trivial to make a google search via `!g` prefix when you are not finding what you are looking for.

I moved off of gmail a few months ago, pretty happy about that but man duckduckgo fucking suuuucks. Really wish there was a nonprofit (with a strong privacy policy) wikipedia like .org solution that provided good results.

Oh yeah it sucks. The main problem for me is the broken autocomplete. E.g. you want to search "Sydney Thai Restaurants"; you start typing "Sydney Thai res" and you click the first suggestion because duckduckgo is auto-completing the word "restaurants"... except now your search is "London Thai Restaurant".

https://imgur.com/a/V9I4o

Re: Please Make Google AMP Optional

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started using DDG a few months back and I've been very happy so far. Sometimes results aren't as great, so I just use !g to load Google. But even better, you can search across different websites! For example, !mdn for Mozilla Developer Network, or !yt for YouTube Another thing you can do is use alternative browsers. On mobile I use Firefox Mobile, which has the benefit of allowing extensions, so you can install uBl…

I actually find DDG results to be better and more relevant a lot of the time nowadays. The only thing Google really has an edge on (for my use) is searching for academic articles, because of Google Scholar.

Same experience here.

Sometimes though, I do have problems finding what I'm looking for (when it is obscure) so I pre-pend !g in front, but generally it's not much better ...

Post reply on HN