AMP creates more trouble than anything
When Google first launched its AMP project in 2015, it did so with good intentions. It wants to use these Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) to speed up the transition to the mobile web, making it easy for sites to build fast and mobile-optimized pages without headaches. Unfortunately, Google also favors sites that use AMP over those that don’t, effectively forcing almost all publications to build AMP versions of their sites. Although Google later backed away from that decision, AMP still exists. That’s why privacy-focused browser Brave and private search engine DuckDuckGo decided to do it themselves and block AMP on their platforms.
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Brave and DuckDuckGo cite AMP’s privacy concerns. DuckDuckGo explained in a tweet that AMP is bad for privacy because it allows Google to track users more. The technology will also help the company further cement its monopoly in search, enabling publishers and websites to create AMP sites in the hopes of better rankings. Brave made similar comments in a lengthy blog post, saying AMP is bad for privacy and promotes the monopoly of the web. AMP also confuses users which site they’re visiting, making them think they’re on a publisher’s page while they’re still on a site provided by google.com. As Google itself stated in a report to the DOJ, AMP itself has performance and usability issues that often make it worse than a well-optimized mobile site.
Old AMP links in top stories carousel
In a statement to The Verge, Google spokeswoman Lara Levin disputed the allegations. AMP is an “open-source framework developed in partnership with publishers, tech companies, and Google to help load web content faster” and help publishers “create great web experiences with ease.” Danny Sullivan, Google’s search liaison, made it clear that AMP has never changed search rankings per se, it has only affected the news carousel in the past, but not anymore. However, none of these speakers directly address the privacy concerns that Brave and DuckDuckGo share, and arguably the site appears in the news carousel higher than any other result below it.
While Google’s AMP technologies are well-intentioned, they’ve been controversial from the start, and the industry seems to be moving away from them. Large publishers like Vox Media have stopped or are considering stopping offering AMP services altogether, and Google has further emphasized AMP in search results, removing the lights next to them to differentiate them from the regular web pages of the past.
A few years ago, Brave had its own privacy issues to address. The browser was found to inject its own referral code into links to some cryptocurrency websites, which theoretically allowed the company to view some data about users who signed up using the referral link. However, it has long since discontinued this practice.
De-amp is currently being tested in Brave Beta and Nightly and will be enabled by default once the next version of the browser, v1.38, is released on desktop and Android. Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo has enabled AMP protection on its browser extension and mobile app.
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