Popular crypto-native browser Brave announced the “De-AMP” feature. This would allow users to directly visit publisher websites and “cut out” Google.
Brave’s Nightly, Beta, and Android versions now have this feature. It should be turned on by default in the 1.38 Desktop, and Android versions. “Rewrite links and URLs to stop users from visiting Accelerated Mobile Pages pages altogether,” Brave stated in a blog post.
Brave explained that Brave would redirect users away from AMP pages if this isn’t possible. This will prevent AMP / Google codes from being loaded or executed.
Brave claims that this feature is essential because Google’s AMP can be harmful to privacy, security and the user experience. The browser claims that AMP helps Google monopolize the Web and maintain control over it.
AMP, was launched in 2015. It was described as an “open-source initiative aiming at making the web better for everyone”. It is possible that it is more of an Google project, given that it was suggested by Google.
AMP’s primary goal is to provide a faster and cleaner mobile experience for its users. Google serves pages from its servers to accomplish this. Simply put, when a user clicks an AMP page, Google.com serves it. However, it may seem like they are being served by the publisher.
Many have argued that AMP doesn’t even improve performance. Google acknowledged in a disclosure that AMP does not improve performance and that AMP pages load slower than other speed optimization techniques.
Google has been criticized for forcing publishers to use AMP. This is especially true for news websites. According to a 2016 study, non-AMP articles were unlikely that they would appear in the Top Stories carousel of mobile search in Google.
This has led to a new antitrust suit against Google. The Wall Street Journal has reported that a recent version of a December 2020 suit claims that Google made non AMP ads load slower, and that AMP pages were “specifically intended to make it harder for ad spaces to be auctioned off on platforms other than Google’s ad platform.”
AMP can also be a security and privacy risk as it allows Google to see more pages and the interactions they have with them.
