‘Google AMP Stories’ is Coming to Google Search Later This Year

Google is set again to make a major change and improvement to the web interface of their popular search engine. Not too long ago we reported about a major change in the way Google search will render results will render results based on your location. Which under some circumstances wouldn't be favourable to some users. 5months later, the company announced that it'll be launching what they call “AMP Stories” which isn't something else other than the regular stories feature we see every day on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.

Now I understand that there are some internet users who aren't interested in social media stories, which BTW is basically a full-screen display of content (images or short videos) that you can swipe or tap through, thus will have the first instinct of not having interest to read this article about Google AMP Stories, but for the sake of knowledge I urge you to read this. Because it'll give you a better understanding of what’s happening here and probably get you ready for what could be a major change to how your Google search results are going to look later this year.

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Like you already know what stories are, the basics are pretty simple and clear, and luckily in the case of Google search story, the basics are still the same but with little complications (probably because of the coding) which makes it a little unstraight as the stories we see on Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and now on Facebook.

Generally, AMP which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages is a technology by Google that makes web pages to render faster on mobile devices. AMP has been in existence for quite some time now, hasn’t been without controversy, and has undoubtedly become a major source of traffic for most websites that use it.

So liking the same knowledge of AMP in web pages to “AMP Stories”, when simply put, refers to the fact that Google’s version of the stories is built on that HTML-esque base. The AMP Stories are coded and served with many of the same tools used to make AMP articles, so they load fast and may even be pre-cached on your phone before you click on them.

It might also interest you to know that Vox Media was one of the publishers that worked with Google to create AMP Stories according to Peter Kafka report's at Recode, Google paid some amount of money to publishers like Vox Media to develop AMP Stories. Though neither Google nor VOX Media is willing to disclose the cost of this. Though Google characterized it a sort of development fund instead of an ongoing payment.

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Google has already launched a developer preview of it’s “AMP Stories” today and it will look alike or have some similarities and controls with the ones of Snapchat. There will be a mix of text, moving images, and of curse a little video. And You tap on the right to go to the next item, or tap on the left to go back, just like you'd normally do on Snapcha, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.

AMP Stories a distinct, new way to tell stories, and will serve as an opposition to AMP articles which are mainly faster ways to show content on a webpage - Vox Media’s chief product officer, Joe Alicata.

Google made it clear at the stage that they will be allowing Ads on the AMP Stories, which I think is a great idea, especially now that is still on under developers' preview stage. But knowing Google and being familiar with their ways of making off most things they create, and improving lives while at it, I think it'll be safe to hope or imagine that Google search stories MIGHT BE MONETIZED in the future

Who Can Make a Google AMP Story?

You, me, pretty much everyone can make an AMP Story, it is open source, though it is clearly being driven by Google, Google isn’t going to put just any publisher’s AMP Stories on search results pages. For now, it’s only a small, white-listed group of publishers participating in the developer preview, they include CNN, Mic, SBNation, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Wired, People, and Mashable.

AMP Stories can be linked to and shared, and Google advice users to view stories on mobile phones instead of desktop computers for optimum performance and experience.

For now, Google is a little low on sharing more/detailed information about the AMP Stories, there is no confirmation on when it will be made available or places (locations) where it'll be available. But if your guess is as good as mine, I'd say that the AMP stories will surface in the “Top Stories” carousel on Google, on the Google feed on Android phones, and wherever else makes sense. Google confirmed that the AMP Stories will appear in Google search only if you go looking for it

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