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Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

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Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#161

Post by gjs278 »

CDSlice wrote: post #157

First of all, I'm not a web developer, so I may not get all the problems with AMP. I actually love AMP on mobile. Every site I've used(1) that has an AMP version loads faster and works better even with some ads than the normal version on Firefox mobile with uBlock Origin. Given that it's possible for people to host their own AMP cache (like Cloudflare does), I really don't see the problem with AMP itself. (1) Other t…

why do people on HN insist on making (1) references to their comments for no reason. just type like a normal person. oh and amp sucks.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#162

Post by tyingq »

apexalpha wrote: post #133
bluetidepro wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, I'm not arguing that. I'm saying, Google should let us choose. If I want to download 4MB of bloat, let me. I don't like them making the choice for me that AMP is "the best" option. What you want, isn't what I want always, and that's my point. It is user hostile/a dark pattern for Google to force AMP on me, with no way to disable it.

In which way is Google forcing you to AMP? I've never encountered a website that didn't also have a not-AMP version.

By not having a config item for their search to return the real url.

And, as in the main story, the AMP page bricking the link to the real url.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#163

Post by austinshea »

apexalpha wrote: post #118
bluetidepro wrote: post #90

It's ironic to me that AMP is a problem we all brought upon ourselves, really. It's almost (jokingly) a Prisoner's dilemma [1]. Had no one ever opted into it, it probably would have just been swept under the rug by Google, and a win-win for us all. But since a competitor of yours ( probably ) opted into it to get ahead of you, you now have to opt into it also, to compete and get the same SEO "power juice" it gave the…

Counterpoint: WE don't live in an ideal world and AMP is my only option of getting de-bloated webpages. I would love if managers and directors would do this themselves and AMP wouldn't be needed, but that's just not the case. I have to choose between downloading some text and images to read an article or load 5MB JavaScript SinglePageApp with tracking, ads, auto playing video's... I know in an ideal world AMP would b…

Why is it your only option? AMP sucks, and I don't see why any user would feel like they need it.

AMP is about getting into the carousel search results, and if AMP wasn't the only way to do that, we wouldn't feel forced to use it.

To just download text and images I use www.outline.com, but there are lots of ways to accomplish this.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#164

Post by privateSFacct »

bluetidepro wrote: post #135
apexalpha wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which way is Google forcing you to AMP? I've never encountered a website that didn't also have a not-AMP version.

It's forcing me to go through AMP, that's what I'm saying. And in the case of the parent OG article this is all on, that is currently broken. Thus, forcing me to be stuck on AMP, with no way to bypass it. That's why it needs a setting to disable it entirely. I don't want to have to go through a website to get to the one I wanted. I don't need the AMP middleman. You are completely not understanding my point of having…

Can’t you still go to regular pages? I’ve never been forced to go to AMP pages. But I like them - people forget the full screen videos that popped up pre-AMP. Seriously - all this complaining you can’t load your bloatware pages is weird. AMP wouldn’t even be a thing if devs hadn’t trashed their own websites.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#165

Post by privateSFacct »

untog wrote: post #126
apexalpha wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: WE don't live in an ideal world and AMP is my only option of getting de-bloated webpages. I would love if managers and directors would do this themselves and AMP wouldn't be needed, but that's just not the case. I have to choose between downloading some text and images to read an article or load 5MB JavaScript SinglePageApp with tracking, ads, auto playing video's... I know in an ideal world AMP would b…

> AMP is my only option of getting de-bloated webpages It isn't, though. Plenty of sites out there are de-bloated, and things like Reader Mode in browsers makes the rest work just fine.

Is this really true - every time I switch to non AMP / non Adblock my eyes bleed. User numbers for AMP and Adblock say at least something about the “fact” that sites are debloated.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#166

Post by graeme »

michaelmior wrote: post #159
graeme wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it breaks things. For example, I had a common issue where reddit links in search didn't have comments and I had to click through to get to them If the amp page displays what you expect, it works well. It it makes you click through, it doesn't. Of course, users may or may not realize amp/google are the reason a site is broke. Dunno how many people have issues like this though. Reddit was the main one for me, plus a…

"broken" and "requiring an extra click" seem like two different things to me. Although I understand that you're not getting what you expected, so my judgement here is subjective.

It may not be obvious to users why their site is broken. Of course, at that stage they may blame the site unless they know why the site appears that way in the first place.

But it isn't always obvious how to get to the site from an AMP page.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#167

Post by luckylion »

hknd wrote: post #132
benjymo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Google can rank by whatever criteria they want and we are forced to implement it. And it isn't always in the best interest of the end user. E.g. at a company we had to add "useless" content on our shop pages, otherwise google ranked the pages lower due to having not enough content.

The Google Search team is always ranking pages to get the best metric (ctr, time-spend-on-website), s.t. it indicates that users are happy with the result. If any feature/change introduces a regression, they will not ship it. (That kinda indicates that people outside of hn actually like amp) Keep in mind that: amp team != search team.

> it indicates that users are happy with the result

Doubt. Especially "time spent on website" primarily indicates that the user didn't quickly find what they were looking for.

You'd be correct in assuming that it's a good indicator if it wasn't gamed. Since people believe that it's a ranking factor, they'll do whatever they can to increase it. Shitty SEO texts that go on and on without actually saying anything, breaking the back button, adding exit intent popovers, you name it, it's out there. All heavily increasing time on site. Are the users happy? Do you prefer a 5 sentence page that just plainly answers your question about some topic, or do you want a twenty paragraph novel that maybe, possibly somewhere includes the answer, but you need to completely read this opus magnum first?

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#168

Post by tyingq »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #2

I don't know anything about AMP, so I'm genuinely amazed that one could create bugs in it that just downright break hyper references. I though links was a pretty important part of HTML, and so people took care to ensure they work?

It a bug that's breaking some JavaScript that renders the AMP page header. It's breaking a link Google is supposed to generate via their mandatory included js for AMP pages.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#169

Post by fauigerzigerk »

apexalpha wrote: post #129
bluetidepro wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your point, but I guess I just wish it wasn't an "either or" world, so we both could enjoy the web how we would respectively like. Why won't Google let us have both? Right now, I don't believe there is a way to disable AMP ( unless you use like a Firefox mobile extension for that specific use case ). That's what bothers me the most, personally. Google shoving it down our throats, and force feeding us AMP…

I agree with you. I would prefer a world where AMP isn't needed and websites don't ad 4MB of bloat to their sites. But, we don't live in that world I'm afraid. And for many news websites I don't want to even begin downloading the auto-playing video on their page. So AMP is for many the easiest choice.

AMP is not needed to promote less bloated websites in search results. Google could easily boost the ranking of lightweight websites without AMP.

AMP is an obvious abuse of a dominant market position and Google will come to regret it.

Re: Google AMP Issue: Links to visit the site currently not working

#170

Post by zrobotics »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #60
xupybd wrote: post #37

Just came to say I hate amp. If I want to go to a site I want that site not a google cache of it. It’s not a better experience. It just means another click to get to where I was going. Stop the madness Google kill amp.

I could have sworn that Google promised a user preference to disable AMP results this year, but I can’t find any references. I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for over a year now and it’s just painful.

I'm just curious, since I see this brought up all the time- what is painful about DDG? The only times I have poor DDG results is for anything that leverages Google maps, such as a local business. Considering even Apple can't touch gMaps I don't find this surprising, but for general search I switched to DDG because the results were better. For example, my last search was "mdd 3754" to find the data sheet for a mosfet. DDG links to the result as the first click, whereas Google serves an ad so large I need to scroll down on mobile to even see a result, and the first 3 results aren't even in English. I'm genuinely asking, what sort of search queries does DDG return painful results for?
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