Note archive: August, 2019

I’ll take “Horse and music” for 200 please, Alex.

Disallowing is one option, but another could be to rewrite script elements to be inert during preload and activated on actual load.

Going to Boston. brb

I did some liveblogging of the second day of An Event Apart Chicago #aeachi:

https://adactio.com/journal/tags/aeachi2019,liveblog

Thanks for doing that—much appreciated!

I would love to! …But it might be very tricky to make it work as I’m speaking at An Event Apart in San Francisco right before that: https://aneventapart.com/event/san-francisco-2019

Drop me a line—jeremy at adactio dot com.

Is there a URL for where the discussion around “speed assessment via metrics” is happening?

Is there a timeline on when we can expect to see non-AMP pages (with web packaging) getting the same preferential treatment as AMP pages in search?

Oh, yes, I wasn’t suggesting that any pages are ready to be hosted and pre-rendered as they are today—there would certainly need to be some rejiggng done, either by the author or the host.

Yes, I linked to that in my post.

But this wouldn’t be “arbitrary” content—there would be strict criteria for admission.

It feels like there’s a big spectrum between “arbitrary” and “only AMP”.

AMP is burning the village in order to save it. It’s far too extreme a step to rebuild everything in a new format.

@cramforce Here’s my proposal for what you requested—https://twitter.com/cramforce/status/1165084023359602688—for tackling privacy and performance for prerendering non-AMP pages:

https://adactio.com/journal/15726

I think the bouzouki brings out the best in Gary Numan:

https://soundcloud.com/saltercane/03-are-friends-electric

Going to Chicago. brb

❤️

Reading Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker.

If only Google Search had a similar model.

As it stands, the AMP team gets to offload the unfairness of the format’s privileged position onto the search team, while maintaining the appearance of open source and good governance for AMP.

I’m getting some very mixed signals here:

https://twitter.com/pbakaus/status/1164943465949454337

https://twitter.com/cramforce/status/1165084023359602688

You won’t recommend me for a Product Manager job at Google?

My dreams lie in tatters before me.

How about a position on the AMP advisory committee? I’m hoping fascists like me aren’t barred.

Never once did I claim that using AMP would result in fewer clicks for publishers.

It’s exactly because AMP is guaranteed to work this way—while nothing else will—that makes the situation unfair.

Publishers have no choice but to use AMP.

But only for AMP pages.

No other framework gets this treatment.

No other web pages—no matter how fast—get this treatment.

Any wonder that developers are resentful of AMP?

You are not alone:

https://baymard.com/blog/deemphasize-install-app-ads

During our testing “Install App” banners were the direct and sole cause of several abandonments of some of the world’s largest e-commerce websites.

You’ll notice that I never once said that AMP is a ranking factor.

I said AMP is unfairly privileged in Google search results …because AMP is unfairly privileged in Google search results.

That’s a real shame for AMP-the-format.

https://adactio.com/journal/13035#preferential%20treatment

AMP as often cited is not a ranking factor

This is the kind of semantic chicanery I’m talking about.

AMP pages are pre-rendered by Google. Regular (fast) web pages are not.

The Top Stories carousel appears above other results.

Publisher value enabled by AMP?

Publishers are using AMP because they have to, not because they want to.

If AMP weren’t treated differently to other frameworks, we could assess its true value.

Also: holding this position apparently makes me a fascist.

(still shaking my head over that one)

To understand my position, start with the position “one framework shouldn’t be unfairly privileged in search results” and then extrapolate from there. That is the fundamental disagreement.

(I think I’ve made that pretty clear, right?)

According to Godwin’s Law, the discussion stopped here:

https://twitter.com/cramforce/status/1164693853032439810

Hint away! …But also, please charge your phone’s battery.

Ooh! Colour me intrigued!

Gonna blog about it?

I want to go to there.

By the way, Charles, the one comfort I can take about AMP is that every passing day brings us closer to its 1,459 day probability point.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/22/google-keep-services-closed

One more point and there’ll be fireworks: https://adactio.com/notes/15620

Related: here’s what I’ve been reading, documented on my website:

https://adactio.com/notes/reading

So, just to be clear, while you might be capable of the mental gymnastics required to think “Well, leaving aside the unfairness of the SEO situation with AMP…”, I cannot do that.

I wish AMP would compete on its own merits.

Do it.

Please.

Me too! I would love to get behind AMP—a declarative framework where configuration happens in HTML rather than JavaScript: great!

But I cannot in good conscience support it while it is being unfairly prioritised and propped up in search.

It is not orthongonal as long as AMP is being privileged in search. This isn’t something you can just handwave away. The unfairness of it actively harms AMP-as-framework.

Also YES

I have no problems with AMP, the open source format (accessibility issues notwithstanding).

I have no problems with AMP’s governance model.

I have serious problems with AMP’s privileged position in Google Search. It’s an abuse of power.

Agreed! Maintaining one site is nicer than two.

And yet publishers with already-fast sites (like The Guardian) are compelled to make AMP versions for the search benefits.

That’s not a side point—it is THE point!

I like it!

Yup! See you soon!

Here you go: https://adactio.com/about/speaking/

…but if you use any framework other than AMP, you don’t get any of the Google Search benefits that are only bestowed on sites “choosing” to use AMP.

Hardly seems fair.

Yowza!

Far from questioning AMP’s right to exist, I want it to exist and compete on a level playing field—without being propped up by an unfair advantage in search results.

Classic fascism, that.

You don’t get rewarded by Google Search for building pages with Bootstrap or React.

In.

This.

Context.

Regular web pages don’t require loading a specific JavaScript file.

When I say “Google is now strongly encouraging publishers to only publish AMP”, I mean AMP pages without a corresponding regular web page.

Cue semantic chicanery about AMP being regular web pages (spoiler: they are not).

Paired AMP was never meant to be the end state. (That’s why we’re now calling it Transitional mode in AMP for WordPress).

https://blog.amp.dev/2019/05/01/amp-as-your-web-framework/

I would absolutely love it if AMP were competing on a level playing field with the likes of Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News …but with Google’s SEO strong-arming tactics, the playing field is far from level.

Also, neither Apple or Facebook have a monopoly in search—Google does. Google is abusing that monopoly to get publishers to publish AMP …or suffer the SEO consequences.

Except that Apple never suggested that publishers should switch their main site over to the Apple News Format. Google is now strongly encouraging publishers to only publish AMP.

I would say Falcor from Neverending Story, the big flying dog.

Materials: https://resilientwebdesign.com/chapter2/

Material 2020: https://material.is/2020/

I wrote five megawords while crossing the Atlantic ocean:

https://adactio.com/journal/15650

Going to Saint Augustine, Florida. brb

I worry that the list of experience values might be contradictory e.g. “considerate” and “empowering” in this context:

https://adactio.com/journal/12718

Happy 28th anniversary of the release of the World Wide Web’s codebase, made public by @TimBerners_Lee on August 19th, 1991:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.next.announce/avWAjISncfw

Had a thoroughly lovely evening in @DeadRabbitNYC catching up with @RobWeychert and listening to tunes from @FidDylanFoley.

Going to cross the Atlantic Ocean. brb

Reading Rosewater by Tade Thompson.

Any chance of providing a direct link to the audio file on that page?

Or a podcast link? (an RSS feed with audio enclosures.)

I hate to be “that guy”, but a Soundcloud embed isn’t a podcast.

You, yes you, should come to Indie Web Camp Brighton on October 19th and 20th:

https://adactio.com/journal/15612

You can register now:

https://ti.to/adactio/indie-webcamp-brighton-2019

See you there!

At Homebrew Website Club Brighton, @orbific has sent me down a rabbit hole of nostalgia by pointing out that http://brightonbloggers.com/ is still online!

👏

Yeah, that’s something completely different that also uses the word “preload”, but it’s nothing to do with navigation preloads in service workers.

That’s not at all what a navigation preload is.

Could you explain what you mean? Using navigation preload shouldn’t use any more data (or time) than a regular navigation to a URL if there were no service worker present.

Here it is!

https://wordridden.com/post/720

Yes, indeed! 6pm at the @Clearleft studio in @68MiddleSt.

Yes, please! I’d much rather link to your writing on your own website.

Also: writing on your own website is hella fun!

https://dev.to/walaura/the-web-without-the-web-aeo

https://adactio.com/links/15583

In elevating frontend to the land of Serious Code we have not just made things incredibly over-engineered but we have also set fire to all the ladders that we used to get up here in the first place.

— @freezydorito