I know what stories are on the other apps... I don't know what this is: it sort of looks like it might be a library I can put on my website to make something that looks like stories, but it also sounds like it is on Google's website? Some people are saying it isn't on the website but is actually on the new tab page of Chrome? I'm seeing people say it involves AMP somehow?

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 :/.

The cognitive dissonance is from Stories being marketed as innovation. HN users are aware of stories (Snapchat has had them since 2013), but since they're not innovative in any way shape or form people aren't making the connection.

People know what stories are, they make sense on Instagram or other similar platforms, but I have absolutely no clue why everyone needs to make stories now. Linkedin? Youtube? Netflix? And now Google with stories in search? What do they bring in all these cases?

> it seems like the majority of commenters here are completely unfamiliar with the format

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.