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Comment by ejcx

10 years ago

Just wanted to give the author a shoutout for being awesome. This article is published with an AMP version[0] too, which is pretty unusual for smaller blogging sites.

AMP articles are so much easier on my eyes (and the author can't include their own javascript on an AMP page, so there is less bloat). I wish all bloggers started to publish AMP pages.

[0] - http://applehelpwriter.com/2016/08/29/discovering-how-dropbo...

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ejcx

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tqkxzugoaupvwqr  10 years ago

AMP is not the solution. Anyone willing to use AMP to reduce bloat could also just not add bloat to HTML pages in the first place. And, using AMP itself adds bloat[1]. I couldn’t even read the author’s AMP version without enabling JavaScript.

[1] https://www.ampproject.org/docs/get_started/create/basic_mar...

  • aeharding  10 years ago

    AMP is bastardized HTML used as an excuse to making a website fast in the first place. I totally agree.

    Additionally, AMP wants to become the arbiter of the mobile web. Just look at their list of "Supported ad networks." [1]

    Who gave them the authority?

    AMP worries me greatly.

    [1] https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml/blob/master/builtins/a...

  • untog  10 years ago

    This is what really confuses me about AMP. All it does, really, is force authors to strip their page down to core, performant components.

    Another way to do that is to strip your page down to core, performant components without loading a JS library from Google. But Google dangles the carrot of improved SEO with AMP, so everyone has to do it anyway.

    (note: they don't actually prioritise AMP pages, they prioritise page load speed. But AMP pages are put inside a Google CDN, so, what do you know, they load fastest)

  • espadrine  10 years ago

    > Anyone willing to use AMP to reduce bloat could also just not add bloat to HTML pages in the first place.

    AMP is not meant for page authors — usually, they are painfully aware of how much bloat they add. They don't have a choice when sustainability is in the balance.

    AMP is for the ad networks. It draws sane restrictions to what they can do. On their end, ad networks agree to that because Google is a large partner of them and because the worst possible outcome would be having everybody use ad blockers.

    • manigandham  10 years ago

      > They don't have a choice when sustainability is in the balance.

      This is not solved by AMP, it's absolutely the choice of publishers.

      > AMP is for the ad networks.

      Not really, you can see their official roadmap. Many of the original principles have already changed and many of the intrusive ad formats are already back in (like autoplay outstream video units). The only real optimization is better async loading which could already be done with proper coding by publishers and ad networks.

  • tedmiston  10 years ago

    > just not add bloat to HTML pages

    This isn't really a solution when many authors use a CMS, like WordPress and others, where the bloat is built-in. Sure you can write a custom theme etc, but not everyone (1) has the ability to do that, and (2) wants to dedicate the time to do that.

gr2020  10 years ago

I'd be a lot happier with AMP if they'd stop hijacking the scrolling behavior on iOS (speed and momentum is different than on a regular web page). It drives me absolutely crazy.

  • breatheoften  10 years ago

    Oh no!! I never heard of AMP before but now I hate it with a passion. Anything that spreads the terrible gmail style scrolling behavior is all bad in my eyes.

bitwize  10 years ago

Why not an "HTML with minimal styles and no JavaScript" version? Oh wait, that's not reactive.

jads  10 years ago

> I wish all bloggers started to publish AMP pages.

I wish all bloggers with sites so bloated that AMP is a fundamental difference didn't feel they needed to include large image assets, custom fonts, and fancy JavaScript libraries (not suggesting this blogger does - just a general complaint).

JoshMnem  10 years ago

AMP is terrible for publishers though. It would be better if the site would publish simpler HTML/JS than use AMP.

smpetrey  10 years ago

In case there are any Wordpress bloggers and authors out there who would like to add AMP functionality to their websites Automattic put together a nice plugin tool to do just that.[0] I wonder when this will become part of the wp-core?

[0] https://github.com/Automattic/amp-wp

  • snowwrestler  10 years ago

    I hope never. This is clearly the sort of thing that should be optional--which is exactly why Wordpress has a plugin system.