Implement AMP Project framework

[thumped]

https://www.ampproject.org/

The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project is an initiative to improve the mobile web and enhance the distribution ecosystem. If content is fast, flexible and beautiful, including compelling and effective ads, we can preserve the open web publishing model as well as the revenue streams so important to the sustainability of quality publishing.

AMP HTML is a new way to make web pages that are optimized to load instantly on users’ mobile devices. It is designed to support smart caching, predictable performance, and modern, beautiful mobile content. Since AMP HTML is built on existing web technologies, and not a template based system, publishers continue to host their own content, innovate on their user experiences, and flexibly integrate their advertising and business models -- all within a technical architecture optimized for speed and performance.

 

[Fred.]

This would be nice in XF 2.0

 

[kontrabass]

I agree with the Ars author here, I think it's only a matter of time before google considers AMP a ranking signal...

http://arstechnica.com/information-...-tackles-the-old-myth-of-the-web-is-too-slow/

Gotta do what Google wants, don't we?

 

[Walter]

Indeed.
http://www.mondaynote.com/2015/10/12/googles-potential-game-changing-boost-to-mobile-pages/

 

[Pierce]

I want to add to this that the Xenforo mobile interface is a killer feature and compliance with AMP is important when traffic is 70%+ mobile.

 

[Chromaniac]

WordPress.com today announced that all their blogs are now AMP enabled.
WordPress.org already has a plugin that you can install to make your self hosted blog AMP enabled.
I hope XenForo developers look into making this a core feature of the platform to support the initiative. Cheers.

 

[Fred.]

Google AMP went live a few days ago
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-amp-live-21674.html

I wish XF was ready for AMP Hopefully soon.

 

[maxicep]

Google AMP went live a few days ago
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-amp-live-21674.html

I wish XF was ready for AMP Hopefully soon.

Agree. Xenforo must support the AMP in the next version as soon as possible

 

[Divvens]

Yep got the email blast that webmaster tools sent out, AMP is going to also affect search listings now and becomes important to be implemented/supported.

 

[Recep Baltaş]

This is a must. Hope we get it soon with XF 2.0.

 

[Okan Vurdu]

Does anyone have information about this subject? Is it planned to implement in next versions?

 

[Fred.]

This is a must. Hope we get it soon with XF 2.0.

Does anyone have information about this subject? Is it planned to implement in next versions?

If you would like to support this suggestion like the first post in this thread.
There is no information if it will be implemented or not, the best that you can do for now is like the first post.

 

[Paul B]

Having just spent a few minutes reading about it, it seems completely unusable to me for anything other than static pages.

Look at the list of prohibited elements: https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml/blob/master/spec/amp-html-format.md

How is something like a forum going to function without forms, input elements, etc?

Being forwarded to the AMP version of the page would be useless for anyone wanting to interact with it (e.g. post); they would then have to load the actual page anyway.

 

[RobinHood]

Surely when google crawls a site it's reading the site as a read only logged out user without most form and input elements anyway? That is the version of the site that would benefit most from being AMP enabled as it's what gets crawled, listed in search results, hosted on the AMP serving system and then read by new organic (or logged out) visitors to your site?

They get the fastest possible, optimized experience until they decide to register or login and interact with the forum. This faster experience could in itself increase your organic listings, thereby increasing the clickthrough rate to content on your site. The speed increase could additionally decrease bounce rates and encourage user registration conversion rates to get people using the full fat non-AMP version of your site.

Not everyone posts on forums, there's lots of logged out lurkers and readers there just to read the content or find answers to questions. They don't want to register. A read only static AMP version of threads would benefit these users, wouldn't it?

 

[Recep Baltaş]

Most of the hit is read only. Amount of contributing users are maybe at 10%, even 5%. And most of the users do not contribute from mobile. If they want to, they use Tapatalk.

 

[Mike]

Realistically, if we were to try to implement this, you'd likely be looking at an entirely differently styled page because:

• Markup limits and changes (see more below)
• Limits to some CSS rules (such as overflow)
• Limits of CSS length and inclusion method (50,000 bytes and inlined)

One sizable issue is the fact that <img> tags (and all other embeds) require explicit dimensions, which is generally something we don't track. Similarly, media embeds are often done a bit differently, though if they're just iframes they might be ok.

By way of an example, here's a blog entry: http://blog.luxuryrestaurantguide.com/2016/03/03/thefutureoffood3dprinting/

Here's the AMP version of it: http://blog.luxuryrestaurantguide.com/2016/03/03/thefutureoffood3dprinting/amp/

If you accept that it's going to be a very stripped down version of the page and potentially missing some of the standard components you'd see in posts (particularly if there's any sort of more advanced/interactive features added; spoilers would probably be a good example), then it may be doable, but it would still be a significant feature to add (likely requiring a different "view" type entirely).

 

[Kevin]

If you accept that it's going to be a very stripped down version of the page and potentially missing some of the standard components you'd see in posts

Just had a flasbhack to the vB 'Archive' pages. {shudders}

 

[RobinHood]

One sizable issue is the fact that <img> tags (and all other embeds) require explicit dimensions, which is generally something we don't track. Similarly, media embeds are often done a bit differently, though if they're just iframes they might be ok.

Could that be something whereby if the capacity to track those details were added a cron-job could be run to scan an existing site and populate those details for all exisiting embeds?

If you accept that it's going to be a very stripped down version of the page and potentially missing some of the standard components you'd see in posts (particularly if there's any sort of more advanced/interactive features added; spoilers would probably be a good example), then it may be doable, but it would still be a significant

If it's a significant undertaking, perhaps this could be a good candidate for another official XF bolt on such as enhanced search?

AMP probably isn't really necessary for most forums, small ones, hobby forums, private ones, specific captive audience ones. But for certain admins with large amounts of quality content they want indexed and showing up in google search results to drive organic traffic, I imagine AMP enabled functionality could be worth paying extra for, especially if it results in more ad revenue for those admins.

Will be interesting to see how things play out AMP enabled blogs and news sites to see if it is worth the extra work. I imagine purely due to the speed benefits of having AMP pages, the organic search ranking benefits will soon follow. Especially considering how bloated many blogs and news sites are these days.

 

[Veer]

Agreed with Brogan and Mike, Unliked the first post.

 

[Fred.]

I understand it's a very stripped down version, that's why it's AMP. If the page is large and has lots of JS and objects, tables in it it will be slower so you have to strip it down.
AMP is working on Wordpress and for other CMS are working on it. If it works on a blog, it can work on a forum.
I understand it won't be easy to add and requires a lot of work. I'm not asking to implement it in the next available version ether. But if it gets implemented it would probably be a good idea to start with it in XF2 because you are already making a lot of changes.
On the desktop we can still have the same experience (the normal page) but on mobile you will get the simplified version or AMP page.
Keep in mind that mobile traffic is larger than desktop traffic (in general)

AMP is currently not a ranking signal, but expect that it will become a ranking signal. Because it's about speed, and Google is doing everything to speed up the web and improve user experience.