
10 Misconceptions about AMP - dedalus
https://paulbakaus.com/2016/10/13/debunked-10-misconceptions-about-amp/
======
callahad
> _#2: “AMP is a Google project”_

This is not a misconception. Literally every AMP "Core Committer" is a Google
employee, all contributions are subject to a Google CLA which includes a
patent grant, every AMP page must include a third party script hosted by
Google, and it's impossible to opt-out of Google's AMP Cache, which
preferentially links to and re-hosts your content on Google's servers instead
of allowing you to receive and analyze your own traffic.

AMP allows outside contribution, but it is _absolutely_ a Google project.

Edit: This point seems especially disingenuous since the author is a Google
employee in Developer Relations:
[https://paulbakaus.com/about/](https://paulbakaus.com/about/). His job role
is literally "Web Advocacy lead for AMP"
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbakaus](https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbakaus).

~~~
blowski
Good catch. I started out by thinking you were being pedantic, but I can see
that you're right. The author needs to be more transparent, and I didn't
realise how much of a Google project it is. I had thought it was like Angular
and Go.

------
lucideer
This goes well beyond mere "advocacy" to overt dishonest propaganda. Points #2
and #7 are fairly inarguably, objectively false.

#2 AMP's primary requirement is loading a 3rd-party script from a Google-owned
domain. First. In the head. It disallows local use of this script: it must
come from Google. It further disallows any author-written JS so there's no way
to make this Google-dependency optional for site visitors.

#7 See above on completely disallowing author-written scripts. All JS
interactivity on your site must come through Google's domain.

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mschoebel
Let's see if I got that right: Specification says I _must_ load the AMP script
from cdn.ampproject.org?

If yes, then there is no _effing_ way that I will ever use this. I will NOT
use something that forces me to load scripts from a host that I have no
control over. Does nobody see what a HUGE security risk that is???

~~~
callahad
Once AMP stabilizes, I'm hoping Google will encourage the use SRI to ensure
that the content is what a site expects: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/Security/Subres...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/Security/Subresource_Integrity)

~~~
mschoebel
Still unacceptable as it would still cause my users to expose their IP address
to someone else's server.

~~~
retox
Unfortunately the ubiquity of FB and G+ buttons, Google analytics and CDN use
has raised a generation of web developers who don't see that as a problem.

~~~
kbwt
Certificate Transparency will reveal the domains you connect to over TLS to a
Google server anyway. Assuming you don't already use Google's DNS, that is.

------
treve
I recently started moving my static jekyll website to AMP. The biggest
annoyance by far is that an AMP website requires javascript, and <img> tags
are no longer valid. <amp-img> is required.

This means I now have to choose between blog posts that are valid AMP and
valid (and rendering) in an atom news reader.

I sort of get why this is done on a technical level, but I prefer my HTML to
follow HTML best practices. HTML will outlive AMP. Please just allow this and
fix this in your AMP caching systems to automatically transform this.

~~~
detaro
Curious, why did you want to move your site over? For small-ish sites with
clean code I don't see any benefit of using AMP right now.

~~~
callahad
AMP sites get preferential treatment in Google search results:
[https://search.googleblog.com/2016/09/search-results-are-
off...](https://search.googleblog.com/2016/09/search-results-are-officially-
ampd.html)

Specifically, they're eligible for placement in the "Top Stories" header, and
they get a special "️(!) AMP" flag alongside their entry in the search
results.

~~~
detaro
I thought the "top stories" was only for "proper" news sites?

It would be interesting to see if the AMP marker has an effect on browsing
behavior, it seems awfully technical to me.

------
ginko
> Imagine you’re a tourist in Germany driving on the right lane of the
> Autobahn, not knowing the very left lane is a much faster option. AMP is the
> thing that forces you to stay on the very left lane of the Autobahn, and
> keeps your path ahead clear of obstacles.

Not a good idea unless you want to pay an 80€ fine:
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsfahrgebot](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsfahrgebot)

~~~
nachtigall
lol, fantastic catch :-D

For every one not familar with german laws: You must drive right unless you
are overtaking a slower car that is in front of you. And you are only allowed
to overtake on the left side of another car. So if everyone drives the left
lane, there's no way of overtaking anybody - something that would drive (no
pun intended) all the other drivers nuts and you start to honk like crazy
(which you are not allowed actually) or to give signals with the lights (which
you are also not allowed) to the car in front of you ;)

------
alphex
Number 8 is absurd.

> browsers and big platforms like Google Search today have no mechanism to
> prove that your site is indeed fast and user friendly. So by choosing to do
> it all on your own, you might create a super fast site, but there’s no way
> to know for sure. This validation aspect of AMP is what makes it so
> attractive for 3p platforms.

Ok, so... Google's been making a business saying your website IS or ISN'T fast
enough for mobile. (I have 2 old client websites that Google yells at me
weekly about 'not being mobile optimized' (thanks mom, I know). Why all of a
sudden can they NOT PROVE your site is fast enough? if they've been claiming
to say its fast or not fast all this time?

------
firasd
While I think the idea has merit, I think people are 'cooling' on AMP because
it causes weirdness like the URL being hosted by google (??) and the original
URL being hard to share, etc. They have to encourage browsers or publishers to
find a way to go back to or share the 'canonical' URL, it doesn't seem to be
happening. My understanding at this point is vague though.

(A few months ago I played around with making a WordPress plugin that hooks
into the AMP plugin and redirects all mobile traffic including from FB, etc.
to the AMP page. Didn't finish/release it yet though.)

------
gorhill
> From those early beginnings it was developed hand in hand with publishers,
> ad vendors, technology providers and platforms besides Google such as
> Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest

AMP is not pro-users -- and the above supports this. My opinion on AMP is that
it is a piece in this overall goal out there to weaken the "user" part in
"user agent".

------
angry-hacker
I don't understand the example of design and amp. (#4) Is this some kind of a
joke?

I hope in five years amp is another deprecated project of Google.

Google already knows sites loafing times. Just punish slow sites and give more
to fast ones. Why reinvent the wheel? If the boss sees rankings dropping
because of all of the tracking and ads, maybe they start thinking about making
sites faster.

~~~
ethanbond
Eh, that would also heavily favor resource-rich, er, resources... Not all good
content can optimize their sites or just add more servers, and a lot of bad
content can afford to do that.

------
sundarurfriend
PWA = A _Progressive Web App_ uses modern web capabilities to deliver an app-
like user experience.

(for anyone else that didn't know.)

------
sliverstorm
It's funny-

developers commenting here seem to hope it dies, feel it's terrible, think
nobody actually likes it, etc.

Yet as an end user, I'm already in love with the little lightning bolt. Maybe
_your_ site is fast (is it? Is it really? Even on a crappy phone on 20kbit
DSL?) but so many sites are dog slow, ten seconds or more to load on a fast
connection on a fast phone.

------
slim
Why flag it? I think a good way to cope with this kind of propaganda is to :
1- Change the title to something like "Google wants you to believe AMP is not
a Google project" 2- Change the link to this thread. Namely :
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12708206](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12708206)

------
geofft
As a mobile phone end user, how do I send a link to an AMPed website to
someone without it showing google.com?

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SubiculumCode
It fels as though AMP is putting a wrapper on the internet. No thanks.

------
OhHeyItsE
> Actually, no. AMP is really just that – a web components ecosystem.

Oh that's all???

------
franze
AMP is the HTML the germans would have invented, if they would have invented
HTML: fast, controlled, boring

p.s.: I'm austrian, it's ok-ish for us to make fun of germans.

~~~
majewsky
I know German IT companies, and I can agree with "boring".

~~~
dingaling
I know SAP, so I can't agree with 'fast'.

