On the mobile web, and really everywhere, there’s a real need for speed.  The average person clicks away from mobile content if it doesn’t load quickly.  Yet the average page loads s-l-o-w-l-y.  Something’s got to give.

How bad is it?  Google’s 2017 study showed the average mobile landing page takes 22 seconds to boot up.  That’s a really tough stat when 53% of mobile site visitors leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

Matle Ubl is the Tech Lead for the AMP Project at Google.  Ubl wants to change the way web content is posted to speed things up.  Taking the lessons they say they learned from the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) framework it developed, it wants to get everyone to adopt a new web standard.

Advantages:

  • Faster, near instant load times
  • Easier distribution across multiple platforms
  • Better exposure within Google

“We started working on AMP because we were seeing the mobile web feel clunky and slow, falling behind the tightly-integrated, highly-optimized user experiences that walled garden platforms can offer. Yet we also knew there wasn’t a fundamental technology problem: you could build great experiences on the web with the right knowledge, resources, and management support.” – Malte Ubl, Tech Lead for the AMP Project at Google

The Google AMP project was the company’s attempt to speed things up.  In its basic form, it’s trying to make web pages load as fast at Instant Articles on Facebook, or on advanced Apps.

“We are taking what we learned from AMP, and are working on web standards that will allow instant loading for non-AMP web content. We hope this work will also unlock AMP-like embeddability that powers Google Search features like the Top Stories carousel. Meanwhile, AMP will be Google’s well-lit path to creating great user experiences on the web.” – Malte Ubl, Tech Lead for the AMP Project at Google

If you’re interested in learning more, there’s an in-depth examination on The Verge, as well as a good synopsis of the controversies.