Google Steps Up 2016 Mobile Agenda

Google announced plans to boost Web browsing capabilities on mobile devices as early as next year.

As TechCrunch reported Wednesday (Nov. 25), Google is using its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project as a catalyst to ensure its pages are optimized to be both fast and compelling.

“Google will begin sending traffic to your AMP pages in Google Search early next year, and we plan to share more concrete specifics on timing very soon. In the meantime, the AMP Project invites everyone to take part in the conversation on GitHub and encourages you to begin experimenting with building AMP pages as soon as possible,” the company said in blog post.

In October, Google launched its AMP initiative for faster pages — especially those on mobile devices. The technical specification is open to partners across the industry, and Google confirmed it has garnered interest from thousands of publishers in the six weeks since AMP went live.

The ultimate goal of the project is to eliminate slow-loading pages by freeing publisher sites from the extraneous code, tracking scripts and advertisements that keep pages running slow on mobile devices, TechCrunch reported.

According to Google, the list of companies that have come on board to support the project include: R7.com and NZN Group in Brazil; CBS Interactive, AOL, Thrillist, Slate, International Business Times/Newsweek, Al Jazeera America and The Next Web in the U.S.; El Universal and Milenio in Mexico; The Globe and Mail and Postmedia in Canada and many more around the world.

The AMP developer community has grown to include more than 4,500 people, with the project’s GitHub page receiving over 250 pull requests in the form of contributions of new code, samples and documentation, Google confirmed.