Google Active Mobile Pages Being Planned For Mobile Websites

Long time ago (it was so long, that you’d probably won’t remember it), Apple had introduced the first mobile browser which was web standards compatible and we could open any website on that browser. This effort by Apple wasn’t much appreciated because the websites were not written for the small screen of mobile browsers.

Fast forward to few years later and then came a trend of mobile browsers. However, this trend was pretty soon taken over by apps. The reason was pretty simple. Apps provided a very clear distinguishability and ease of use. If you want to do online shopping then why go on the browser and type in the address bar and click to do that? All you need to do is open the app. From shopping to banking, everything is possible on apps thus making the usage of browsers lesser and lesser. Also, the browsers have certain persistent problems like slow loading, main screen dimmed by advertisements and really small buttons.

Despite all these drawbacks, Google hasn’t yet lost its faith in browsers. Google has unveiled a new project called Active Mobile Pages (AMP), which is expected to remove all the aforementioned browser related problems. The main problem with the browser is the unexpected and untimely ad pop ups. Here is how Google is planning to remove it. Google will evict almost all the JavaScript, and some part of CSS and HTML while loading web pages. What will happen is that page, albeit a little less attractive and ‘designed’, will load a lot faster and the ads which are written in JavaScript won’t work on the web page.


Of course, the first thing that will come in your mind is that how will Google or any website for that matter will make money as the main source for them to earn is advertisements. Richard Gingras, head of social and news products at Google said that the ads won’t be banished completely from the web pages. He said that only the ads that won’t hamper the user experience in any way will be allowed to be displayed. Let’s hope that Google stays true to its word.

The good news for the developers out there is that the project is open source. It means anyone who is interested can make and fork the changes in the code (of course, in a separate project). However, just like it happened with Android, it is possible that Google will have a control over the significant functionality of the project.

What are your views about this new project by Google? Please share with us in the comments below.

Via: Google AMPing up the mobile turf war - The Hindu BusinessLine