What is AMP and why is everyone talking about it?
Last week, we were all about mobile. It appears we weren’t the only ones focused on it as a variety of outlets gave it coverage, too. We were intrigued about how it was covered from a variety of different angles and will break it all down for you. But first things first, what is AMP?
AMP is an acronym that stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is an open-source project that was started in 2015. It seeks to “make the web better for all” by both accelerating the load time and improving the quality of ads or pages we engage with online. If you’re still asking yourself “what is AMP?”, you’ve likely seen an example before without realizing it. AMP pages often appear with a lightning bolt symbol in search responses to top news stories:
With this in mind, it is easy to see why people are excited and on board with this project. MOZ is just one such example. On their blog, they sought to quantify the value of AMP while suggesting tips for its implementation. Google shares in this interest. They announced plans to improve how their search engine recognizes AMP pages while applauding the rise of the project. In the same post, Google also noted a potential dark side to AMP pages.
They have found that some users create AMP pages that do not reflect the entirety of the content that should be on a page. These are called teaser pages and they are something Google wants to eradicate. Imagine if we just stopped the blog here and asked you to click on a new link to finish it. This is exactly what’s happening with these teaser pages as somebody is taking the “what is AMP?” question a little too literally.
We have enjoyed following this coverage of the AMP project. It combines something we like – open source – with something we don’t: teaser pages. Regardless, “what is Amp?” is not a likely question moving forward if this coverage is any indication, as they point to 2018 being the year it gains more widespread usage. Back in 2017, we have happily implemented AMP pages for our clients… without teaser pages, we promise.