While the developer in me dislikes the implementation, I still love AMP as a user.
Mobile websites tend to be incredibly user-unfriendly, and I can't stand it. They load slowly, they bombard me with intrusive notifications and popup ads, scrolling is lethargic, and so forth.
As a user, I have two reliable ways to distinguish a "user-friendly" website in search results:
1. Prior knowledge (I've been to wikipedia.com. It's a great place. I'll visit wikipedia.com anytime.)
2. The AMP Badge
The AMP badge is such a reliable signal of a fast, cruft-less mobile site that I find myself avoiding non-AMP websites in search results. This is unfortunate from a fairness perspective ("...but my non-AMP website _does_ load fast!"), but as a user, it's exactly what I want. Non-intrusive ads, instantaneous loading, and general snappiness.
If the rest of the internet doesn't like the AMP badge, well, time to make your website leaner and faster. Until there stops being a meaningful difference between an AMP and non-AMP page, I'll be clicking on the AMP links. I shouldn't have to employ a bunch of counter measures (ad blockers, noscript, etc) everywhere I go on the internet.
Mobile websites tend to be incredibly user-unfriendly, and I can't stand it. They load slowly, they bombard me with intrusive notifications and popup ads, scrolling is lethargic, and so forth.
As a user, I have two reliable ways to distinguish a "user-friendly" website in search results:
1. Prior knowledge (I've been to wikipedia.com. It's a great place. I'll visit wikipedia.com anytime.)
2. The AMP Badge
The AMP badge is such a reliable signal of a fast, cruft-less mobile site that I find myself avoiding non-AMP websites in search results. This is unfortunate from a fairness perspective ("...but my non-AMP website _does_ load fast!"), but as a user, it's exactly what I want. Non-intrusive ads, instantaneous loading, and general snappiness.
If the rest of the internet doesn't like the AMP badge, well, time to make your website leaner and faster. Until there stops being a meaningful difference between an AMP and non-AMP page, I'll be clicking on the AMP links. I shouldn't have to employ a bunch of counter measures (ad blockers, noscript, etc) everywhere I go on the internet.