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Last Updated on May 12, 2017 by Work In My Pajamas
A year ago, Google launched the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), the Internet giant’s initiative to make loading on web pages on mobile devices faster. Google AMP was initially available for publishers and news sites, but now, ecommerce sites can also enjoy faster rendering for a better user experience. And of course, when it comes to advancements in the ecommerce industry, eBay is not one to get left behind.
eBay is ‘AMPed’
That being said, eBay is one of the first in the industry to take AMP implementation very seriously. Senthil Padmanabhan, Principal Web Engineer at eBay, reports how AMP was announced at the same time that his team was brainstorming how to improve mobile web experience.
And with eBay being AMPed for more than nine months now, here are their take on the new site:
- AMP highlights the best practices in building mobile web pages
Understanding AMP, it can be seen that most of it is all about the best practices in building mobile web pages. Applying the same logic has made even non-AMP eBay pages load faster.
- There is less forking in code with AMP
With Google AMP, there is less forking in code. eBay can easily reuse most of the UI components between its AMP and non-AMP pages.
- AMP’s Components list is sufficient
News sites were the first focus of the AMP project. That is why most of its components are geared for publishing. This component list, despite being initially for publishers, are still sufficient to make eCommerce pages. Users will be able to get improved browsing experience but they will not be able to do actions on items such as “Add to Cart”.
eBay also experienced challenges in building their AMP site. The following are some of the complexities of AMP:
- Some of eBay’s infrastructure components have JavaScript which are disqualified by AMP.
AMP only allows asynchronous JavaScript. This makes transitioning to AMP a challenge. eBay’s team had to adjust to meet AMP guidelines.
- AMP’s tracking is not sufficient yet.
AMP’s amp-analytics component provides user activity tracking. However, this does not meet the granular tracking needs of eBay. eBay will need enhancements in the side of AMP to be able to meet their tracking needs so that they can fully transition to it.
Should we follow the trend?
Google is the biggest, most widely used search engine. It has authority in saying that improving the mobile search experience is necessary – and it really is. With more people doing their search activities with mobile devices, improving the mobile browsing is not optional.
It is also worth to note that ecommerce sales done through mobile devices is increasing year by year. With more than 125 million US consumers owning smartphones, and 50 million with tablets, there is no reason to delay improving the mobile search experience. A fast and easy website is favored by many; it gives the impression that you value your customer’s time spent in your website.
Furthermore, we should also consider search engine optimization. Google is keen on prioritizing AMP pages on search engine results pages on mobile pages.
So, should we follow the trend? Yes, we should!
Welcome to the future!
We have entered a new era in this technology-driven world: one where handheld devices are outperforming machines that are fixed in place. This is very much evident in the rapid growth of mobile ecommerce sales, which is even better than that of desktop ecommerce sales. This shows that more and more people are embracing being able to use technology on the go.
It cannot be denied. This is the future. Mobile devices will soon take over. And with projects that are geared to improve user experience on mobile devices, such as Google AMP, this will be sooner than expected.
Don’t let get behind. Put mobile users in priority and do your part in making their experience more wonderful. From news sites, and now eBay too, Google AMP is a real deal.
So will you opt to be left behind? Or will you jump into the future?
