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Google Stories

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Re: Google Stories

#61

Post by rchaud »

scoopertrooper wrote: post #51
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…

The show cases make things slightly more clear. It seems like a framework for creating short vertical-orientated chaptered videos with fancy captions and that play mute by default. Why anyone would want this? I do not know. https://stories.google/showcase/

> Why anyone would want this? I do not know.

I would imagine some portion of the 1 billion Instagram users that are familiar with this style of storytelling.

Re: Google Stories

#62

Post by claydavisss »

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…

Its like Instagram except no one will use it and it will be gone in a year.

Re: Google Stories

#63

Post by rchaud »

stevenpetryk wrote: post #3

Let's take a moment of silence in solidarity with all the engineers who will now have to make their company's blog support this.

They released a Wordpress plugin a few months ago[0], so this is designed more for content teams and marketers that would prefer to focus on producing stories rather than dealing with developers' objections. Google Tag Manager has the same raison d'etre.

[0]: https://wordpress.org/plugins/web-stories/

Re: Google Stories

#66

Post by drusepth »

nullsense wrote: post #22
aerovistae wrote: post #16

I'll be honest: I don't know what this is and I don't want to know. I want nothing to do with it. Google needs to give up on this. They failed with gchat, they failed with google wave, they failed with orkut, they failed with google+.... They can't seem to stop trying to worm their way into social tech. They just don't get that their brand doesn't work for this and nobody is buying it.

It seems their brand is "socially awkward media"

I guess that explains why I keep getting hooked by it.

Re: Google Stories

#67

Post by rchaud »

SingAlong wrote: post #50

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 t…

> 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.

That's probably by design. The stories are meant to be discovered while searching on Google. Of course a site owner should have the common sense to include a separate section on their site for stories. In most CMSs, It would be as simple as setting a 'web stories' category, then adding a link to the navigation that takes them to a dynamically generated page, something like "example.com/web-stories/"

Re: Google Stories

#68

Post by rchaud »

singhrac wrote: post #38

I think the comments about how this is yet another google wave/orkut/+, etc., are kind of missing what this is (probably because of bad branding overlap with Snapchat/Instagram stories). I think this is a content marketing and blogging platform for small startups, "influencers", and the like. Think of NomadList, Thrillist, food review websites, blogs, etc. That doesn't mean that this will be very successful, obviousl…

I'm actually planning to use this to create a web version of the music zines I post on Instagram. I used to create them using the Swiper slider library, but you have to build the entire HTML+CSS structure yourself, which is very time consuming. Something GUI-based and mobile-specific will greatly increase the speed of production.

Re: Google Stories

#69

Post by paxys »

sktrdie wrote: post #52
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…

It’s pretty cool. If you make a url return data that is visually aligned with “a story protocol” google will put it at top of relevant search results. Think of it as a mini-html site that follows a specific set of visual JS and CSS protocols so that consumers have guarantee of its behavior (will not have crazy ads, gifs or third party content) and behaves consistently. Kind of interesting avenue for publishing conten…

> Kind of interesting avenue for publishing content on the web that isn’t tied to any specific platform.

Except that the protocol will be designed not for the benefit of the web in general but rather for Google to maximize its ad revenue.

I'm all for sites doing new and interesting things, but just like AMP I'm wary when these innovations are being driven by a single company that has monopolistic power over website discoverability and profitability.

Re: Google Stories

#70

Post by jug »

I think it is a new attempt at AMP? AMP 2.0?

But I also think this one will be killed in a few years. A big point with stories is to have you publish them to the friends _who care_ in a network. A social network.

A user googling to get to a website isn't the same kind of user. That's not the user who wants to engage with you on a more personal level: that user would instead befriend you on Instagram. The googling user is likely rather after information, contact details or the like.

So I think Google will be a victim of the "distanced" users of theirs here. Google has users googling things with a purpose, whether it's a recipe, a review or to shop things. They aren't looking for feeds there -- they already have (too?) many ways to get that. They want distilled information. You know, what Google's search engine is designed to get. What they built their brand on: finding information fast.

I think people are moving away from the "generic web" to engage on a personal level, not towards it, because a smartphone's social network app is more intimate. But sure, if the price is right, I guess some might adopt this, if not only as sort of a SEO tool. But I think the value as a product won't even be on the same chart as what stories provide social networks.

Personally, I think stories are a terrible format to engage with users in the way Google aims for here, actually trying to take this format seriously and not just memes and simple ad hoc stuff. Just look at VICE's example here: https://www.vice.com/stories/inside-my-mind-oliver-tree/ What in heaven's name? Multiple clicks about god knows what just to finally get more of it in my mail?

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