The advent of smartphones has transformed the way information is accessed. People are increasingly using mobile phones not only for news but also for various other purposes, be it paying bills or making reservations. However, whenever a webpage takes too long to load, it loses a reader and the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscription is lost with it.
In response to this problem, Google announced on Wednesday a new open source initiative, ‘Accelerated Mobile Pages’, after discussions with publishers and technology companies around the world. It aims to dramatically improve the performance of mobile web.
“We want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads, and to load instantaneously. We also want the same code to work across multiple platforms and devices so that content can appear everywhere in an instant—no matter what type of phone, tablet or mobile device you’re using”, said Google in a blog post.
The search engine giant explained that the project relies on AMP HTML, a new open framework built entirely out of existing web technologies, which allows websites to build light-weight webpages. Nearly 30 publishers from around the world including Twitter, Adobe Analytics and LinkedIn, are among the first group of technology partners planning to integrate AMP HTML pages.
It further said that over time it expects other Google products such as Google News to also integrate AMP HTML pages. It will work with other participants in the coming months to build more features and functionality focused on content, advertising and distribution.
It concluded saying, “We hope the open nature of Accelerated Mobile Pages will protect the free flow of information by ensuring the mobile web works better and faster for everyone, everywhere.”
