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Comment by kerng | Hacker News Reader

Non AMP version here: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/did-google-viola...

Please dont post amp links.

IMO the AMP version's limited HTML elements make it much less of a pain to visit a website without the website filling up 20%+ of my screen with ads.

There’s cases where it’s distinctly slower though.

For this article, it might be due to caching strategies, but the non amp loads way faster for me (in perception about a second faster to start to read the article).

I find the mobile version of arsetechnica much easier to read than the non-mobile version. There's less crap strewn about the body of the text (random plugs for other articles, in-line links, etc)

Did you mean amp or the actual mobile version ?

I thought amp was the mobile site?

Their default mobile site is non amp, I think the amp version is only served through google search

We've changed the URL to take the amp bit out.

Is there a HN guideline about this?

What is AMP? Why is it bad?

AMP is a Google CDN where they restrict the variety of web technologies publishers may use. In return, Google gets more tracking data.

Some people don't like Google, so they don't want to load pages from AMP servers.

What additional data does Google get through AMP that they don't get through Google Analytics?

Nothing, OP is ignorant. Google does AMP to make webpages faster cause they make money from people clicking on links.

Google lock in, like Microsoft's MSN idea in 1995... Google wants you to never leave their servers, so they can track much more and much easier. Just bad for a free and open web.

Google Analytics is easily blocked while still having access to the content. Loading the full content from their AMP servers is an all-or-nothing scenario. It effectively moves Google from being a 3rd party to a 1st party and the content provider becomes the 3rd party instead

It isn't only about the data. When people visit AMP pages from Google Search, they aren't visiting your site. They are visiting a restricted shell of it that is hosted on google.com with a left-right swipe that takes users off of your site instead of deeper inside it. It restricts your markup and monetization, and is one of the largest threats to the WWW at the moment. The web is supposed to be decentralized. Also, mobile-first doesn't mean mobile-everywhere.

https://danielmiessler.com/blog/google-amp-not-good-thing/

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/open_source_insider...

Works fine for me. Do you have a specific complaint about it not working in your browser?

It's formatted for mobile, for one.

Maybe so, but I think it looks better than the regular page on desktop. Instead of header and sidebar clutter, you have whitespace, and it has fewer ads.

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