Google to make the most of web functions like AMP; Will company gain significant 'control' over information?

The Google logo is pictured atop an office building in Irvine, CaliforniaReuters/Mike Blake

Google expressed in a recent blog post that they aim to make most web pages function like accelerated mobile pages (AMP). This technology allows for fast, even instant loading of web pages on mobile by preloading the pages via an app. While it seems like a good idea, detractors thought that it could be a way for Google to "control" information on the internet.

AMP works quite simply in theory, but it utilizes a number of "hacks" to facilitate the instantaneous loading that stems as its benefit. For example, a hypertext markup language (HTML) feature called "iFrames" is sometimes used to manage the delivery of pages in the AMP framework. However, this brings its own slew of problems, like weird scrolling behavior, for example.

However, it cannot be denied that the benefits of AMP are noticeable when viewing pages via mobile. The preloading makes it so that the pages load instantaneously but visits only count and cookies stored when the user actually clicks a link.

Before the AMP technology, this kind of speed can only be reproduced by Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News. In fact, AMP was developed so that the rest of the internet can have a shot of competing with the two mentioned sites when it comes to delivering content fast.

Now that Google is proposing to tailor the rest of the web to the AMP framework, eyebrows were raised because of how these changes might affect the entire internet landscape in general. Naturally, some thought that Google might get a significant amount of control over web pages.

David Besbris, vice president of search engineering at Google, denies these concepts. "It wasn't like we invented AMP because we wanted to control everything like people assume," he said.

It should be noted that Google stated in a blog post that they do not intend to make the rest of the web function exactly like AMP. They need only to apply certain concepts that would lead to faster content delivery.