This is literally AMP [1]. The feature was launched as AMP Stories, which has now been rebranded to Web Stories. They are throwing everything at the wall to increase the use of AMP.
Yes, the point of AMP is for Google to control content distribution on the web, and they entice you to give up control over your content by offering you exposure, for now, just like they did with the Top Stories carousel in Google Search.
The irony of Top Stories is that it forced publishers to use AMP in order to regain the search results placement they already had, before Google took it away by pushing down search results to make room for the new carousel that featured AMP pages.
AMP also still properly directs both ads and analytics metrics, and in some cases can be hosted on caches you own, but even if not, having it hosted in a different cache is also not giving up control.
At no point in this process are you losing control of your content. If you don't want to participate, then don't. Creators decide to put their content on TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, and now this is yet another avenue they can put their contents on. How is it any different?
Only if the ads and analytics are AMP supported and in the list of AMP approved vendors I think, for example: https://amp.dev/documentation/guides-and-tutorials/optimize-...
[0] https://amp.dev/documentation/components/amp-ad/
That should cover basically every user, but it's also open source so you can contribute any you think is missing.
Also, how many choices for analytics and ad networks do you have when you put content on Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok? The latter didn't even have an creator program until very recently, so you were literally posting your content for free.
80 out of thousands of analytics platforms and custom analytics scripts is a very limited list.
> how many choices for analytics and ad networks do you have when you put content on Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok?
But that's the thing with AMP, I still would expect content to be served as it was on my site, it's not like I am creating content for AMP and get an audience on AMP.
Do you have a source on that? Also what % of websites use an analytic provider not included in those 80? I don't have a source either but my personal experience says it'snegligibly small, probably below 0.1%.
> it's not like I am creating content for AMP and get an audience on AMP.
But I think it actually is. Look at this front page screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/HEjjXqm.png
Google is pushing these stories to their users on the discovery feed, so it actually is all about getting an audience from AMP. Yes, it is still being served from your own site, and while there are some limitation, you still have orders of magnitude more control over the content that you would on literally any other platform.
Facebook, to competes, rebrands as "Web Social Network". The technicians can slice hairs over who deserves it or no, but the distinction would be faint, in comparing similar name-grabbing exercises. Ok, Google, maybe you deserve it a little tiny bit more, maybe a smidge, but hardly.
Think of it as a mini-html site that follows a specific set of visual JS and CSS protocols so that consumers have guarantee of its behavior (will not have crazy ads, gifs or third party content) and behaves consistently.
Kind of interesting avenue for publishing content on the web that isn’t tied to any specific platform.
I’d even go further and say the web needs more of these kind of things. All websites behave differently. Maybe we need a visual protocol also for general web apps (just like this web stories) so that we have consistent behavior. I dare to call this protocol Web Apps.
The quote you see at first is: "Stories meet their widest audience ever."
Given that the widest audience is anyone who wants to search for something, this seems like a massive anti-trust bait.
Also, hard-pass on the continual dumbing down of content to contribute to the phenomenal attention deficit modern social media has introduced.
it's Google one AMPing (heh) Amazon's alexa actions.
You develop content they can shove in their Voice/Phone "AI" Assistants, and they throw some organic search scraps your way.
The end goal of those companies (goog, amz, appl, fb) is to be the new AOL. And the plan is the same as AOL in the 90s: controlling the new browser (the App du jour used to run searchs and scroll mindless content)
I agree that the continued increase of "shiny"-ness of "content" is basically hacking people's attention and it should be drastically clamped down - but still, I don't see the argument for how Google and AMP and the "open web" and competition interact together. What are the relevant consequences and "market forces", whose responsibility is what, etc. Could someone explain it? Thanks!
One reason Google wants the whole web to be "standard" is so they can scrape all information more easily, show users rich content by stealing your website's traffic, and create an internet information silo.
A bit more constructively: Who are the stakeholders here in the "open web"?
> show users rich content by stealing your website's traffic
Agreed. AMP allows ads, so when the users open the site the original site can receive ad revenue. But the snippets Google shows on the search results page likely deprive the original sites from traffic.
However ... it's not like Wikipedia wasn't already "stealing facts".
Seems like it would be a magnet for low-value SEO content and outright scams.
Except that the protocol will be designed not for the benefit of the web in general but rather for Google to maximize its ad revenue.
I'm all for sites doing new and interesting things, but just like AMP I'm wary when these innovations are being driven by a single company that has monopolistic power over website discoverability and profitability.
er, isn't it explicitly tied to google?
That's the point, isn't it?
> Web Stories are a web-based version of the popular “Stories” format that blend video, audio, images, animation and text to create a dynamic, less formal consumption experience that goes beyond a simple play button. This visual format lets you explore content at your own pace by tapping through it, or swiping from one piece of content to the next.
It looks like a format to let Google put small web pages with mixed media into search carousels.
The web is turning into Entertainment Tonight, the show my mom used to watch. Ads disguised as content.
Sure feels like the final evolution of ads will be indistinguishable from content.
On an unrelated note, we thank our sponsors and benefactors for bringing us drafts and notes we occasionally might use to augment our impeccable news coverage.
Wait five years. It will not be there.
It seems like a framework for creating short vertical-orientated chaptered videos with fancy captions and that play mute by default.
Why anyone would want this? I do not know.
Snapchat and Vine started it, and now TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are all neck-deep in it. Every single one is dominated by this content in 2020, with perhaps the only area where text is still a main thing being Discord (although voice-chat is the attractive bit for gamers) & the streaming world (Twitch comments, youtube comments, niche Twitter communities).
Whether we like it or not that's where the users are, and for Google that means it's where the ads and indexing should be.
It's much better than posting the content normally and having to feel somewhat like a loser when nobody even likes/comments on it.
On Instagram I have like 6 photos uploaded the normal way. For years I've only used the "stories" system to engage with friends. It's far more personal. Don't knock it too quickly, you may find it's a step in the right direction.
I don't want it at the top of Google search as a marketing apparatus, though.
Join any big Discord gaming group and I guarantee you'll see more people chatting via text than using the audio functionality.
I agree that the text is the major activity going on at any given moment because text remains a good asynchronous repository, but if they hadn't basically integrated mumble/teamspeak to slack I'm not sure the glitter would have been enough to stick, because gamers (and some groups of discussions) definitely do rely on those voice lobbies when actually being present.
So... it's like watching a YouTube video, but every 10 seconds, it jumps back 10 seconds and repeats that 10 seconds, so you have to keep pressing "next [slide]" (at least Instagram/Snapchat progresses seamlessly)
God fucking damnit, people...
I imagine Google's search results will look like Instagram's Explore tab soon enough (https://icdn6.digitaltrends.com/image/instagram-stories-expl... ) showing "trending" clips which are mostly video snippets stolen and re-posted to carry ads from the re-poster...
its product manager at Google, looking for a promotion (and then let it rot)
I would imagine some portion of the 1 billion Instagram users that are familiar with this style of storytelling.
Google should have 1) showed the context in which these show up and then 2) showed a snippet of code or metadata or whatever it was that made it work for some particular site, and then I feel like I would have gotten it; instead they threw up some marketing site that fails to answer even basic questions about what they are doing :/.
I would be guilty of this. I don't use social media, so this is new to me. It is difficult to see the appeal at first glance.
Basically mobile-first tappable web pages. Design-wise it's distinct from most web links as they require you to scroll to read. Here you just tap through pages, like you would on an ebook.
https://amp.dev/documentation/guides-and-tutorials/start/vis...
“Like AMP”? Well, if you follow the links to get to the dev docs, you land at:
https://amp.dev/documentation/guides-and-tutorials/?format=s...
So, yeah, it is very much like AMP.
https://developers.googleblog.com/2018/02/amp-stories-bringi...
After reading through the learn section, it looks like a clone of facebook or instagram's story feature or whatever that will appear on google search results.
At least from the info they've provided.
I've always disliked those...it's the one thing on facebook that shows the other person who looks at it at when. Something I've always been secretly terrified facebook does with everything.
Which Zuck blatantly copied from Snapchat.
Google's version should be called Gnapchat...
And what do we think? Google Graveyard by 2022, or later?
So, it seems like this is just a tool to assist with that.
Which is interesting.. however their landing page sure doesn't make it at all clear as to what is going on.
At least they’re generous enough to give you some ad revenue from it, unlike featured snippets.
I came here to read comments about more details.
Another "social" attempt from Google.
Anyone remember Google+?
That's what popped in my mind when the title ("Stories meet their widest audience ever").
We get it, you figured out how to do clever CSS animations tied to scroll position. Thanks, I hate it.
I’ve tried 3 times and I can’t manage to stay on the page for more than a few seconds without getting frustrated and closing the tab.
What exactly is this? A JavaScript/CSS framework? Something like AMP? Or is it a social network like Snapchat?
I’m genuinely confused what I’m looking at and feel old right now.