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Google looking to speed up mobile web pages

By Doug G. Ware

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Google on Wednesdayunveiled a new project designed to speed up web load times on mobile phones, a feature some experts say might give advertisers fits.

Google detailed the project, called Accelerated Mobile Pages, which uses an open-source program to amp up the load times. Company officials said it will be a "deal-less environment" -- meaning no businesses are involved with Google in the venture.

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While that is surely good news for consumers, it might cause headaches for marketers -- as quicker load times give ads less time to populate the pages.

"There are a lot of details to work out here in terms of some of those capabilities," Richard Gingras, a senior director at Google, said. "We want to support existing business models, but it's a work in progress. Today wasn't the finish line; today was the starting line."

Google specifically stated Wednesday that with AMP, content will load onto the page before ads will. But, the company said, other marketing details remain to be addressed.

Further, Google noted, AMP might actually lead users to stop using ad-blocking features. Some experts say people use ad-blockers because it helps speed up page load times. With AMP, that insulation level may no longer be needed.

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"Ad blocking gives you a better interface that's faster. Google's taking a more publisher-friendly approach that achieves the same thing," Grant Whitmore, a digital executive at the New York Daily News, said.

Google encouraged users to experience the new feature at a demo site.

"Over time we anticipate that other Google products such as Google News will also integrate AMP HTML pages. And today we're announcing that nearly 30 publishers from around the world are taking part too," Google said on its official blog page Wednesday.

It wasn't immediately clear when Google's AMP will be integrated for mobile phones.

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