The Problem with AMP • Hacker News Board

Re: The Problem with AMP

#21

Post by segf4ult » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:48 AM UTC

abusque wrote: post #17

Possibly off-topic, but the article isn't displaying[0] for me on Chromium 55.0.2883.87 (64-bit), running on Arch Linux, unless I go in the dev tools and manually remove "Fira Sans" from the font-family list in .container[1]. Not sure whether the problem is with me or the site, I'm surprised it doesn't fall-back to sans-serif before I override manually. [0] http://i.imgur.com/qJKSvMC.png [1] http://i.imgur.com/zYDZrt…

That's weird. I'll look into a fix.

Edit: I couldn't reproduce this with Chromium on Ubuntu 16.10. I might set up an Arch Linux box to see if that makes a difference.

Re: The Problem with AMP

#22

Post by adzm » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:49 AM UTC

My biggest problem is simply being unable to open up an amp link in a new tab. Often in Google News for example I prefer to open up several tabs and read through them at my leisure. But with AMP this became impossible - though I'm unclear if this is simply a limitation of the implementation.

Re: The Problem with AMP

#23

Post by madeofpalk » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:50 AM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #20

So the argument against AMP is someone's broken implementation and "security" of Google's CDN. Sounds like terrible arguments. That said, Google should give option to opt-out from CDN caching (if they don't already) as otherwise implementing AMP gives Google the right to host your content on their domain.

I believe the Google AMP CDN 'caching' is opt-in anyway

Re: The Problem with AMP

#24

Post by kristianp » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:52 AM UTC

robryan wrote: post #8

AMP is okay for news, but terrible for other forms of content. The reddit implementation is way less usable on mobile than going to their actual site. It also results in lower quality news appearing at the top of searches in cases where they have implemented AMP and the better sources haven't.

Can you give an example of how to view reddit via AMP? If I just search for "reddit" on my Android phone for example, there are no AMP links to reddit, only Business Insider etc.

Re: The Problem with AMP

#25

Post by jordanlev » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:53 AM UTC

And what happened to whole "don't build different markup for different devices" mantra that has been the accepted wisdom in web development for the past 4 or 5 years (whenever responsive design was discovered)? Feels like "m." sites all over again (but this time with google's CDN as a required intermediary).

Re: The Problem with AMP

#26

Post by colept » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:54 AM UTC

I'm glad AMP's weaknesses are finally gaining attention and making their rounds. Google should not be allowed to steal publishers' traffic and strong-arm them into going along with it.

Re: The Problem with AMP

#27

Post by stuckagain » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:56 AM UTC

adzm wrote: post #22

My biggest problem is simply being unable to open up an amp link in a new tab. Often in Google News for example I prefer to open up several tabs and read through them at my leisure. But with AMP this became impossible - though I'm unclear if this is simply a limitation of the implementation.

Long press and open in new tab seems to work for me in chrome/iOS.

Re: The Problem with AMP

#28

Post by pryelluw » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 2:57 AM UTC

rashkov wrote: post #11

freyir wrote: post #6

AMP is one of the most frustrating experiences I've had with Google. the fact that it's foisted on users, with no option to disable it, makes it borderline infuriating. If you're stuck on an AMP page in your mobile browser, you can click on the browser's "Request desktop site" option to load the full page.

I get the frustration, but mobile sites in general also have this problem. "Request desktop site" should be a more prominent feature, at least in safari which is what I'm familiar with. It's quite buried unfortunately and I think that more non-techies would benefit from knowing about it.

Firefox on Android does have this feature as well.

Re: The Problem with AMP

#29

Post by ejcx » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 3:00 AM UTC

One thing I love about AMP, that seems to never be mentioned when people discuss it, is viewing AMP-HTML pages on my laptop.

I wrote a small chrome extension that always forwards my page to the equivalent AMP page (if one exists) and the experience of reading the news is so much better.

AMP pages off mobile are really really amazing. Compare Non-AMP[0] vs AMP[1]

[0] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Trump-on-the-minds-of-...

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/amp/Trump-on-the-minds-of-MLK-...

Re: The Problem with AMP

#30

Post by alistproducer2 » Tue, Jan 17, 2017, 3:01 AM UTC

I make my own amp pages by keeping JavaScript turned off on my phone. 95℅ of pages work and load instantly. Those that don't, I turn on JavaScript. If I go to those pages a lot I add them to my exception list. Sorry but I'm not an amp believer.