FB Instant & AMP : The death of free internet

I’ve always asked myself why such big web companies like Google or Facebook bother thinking the web and the traffic itself not their own but a common property.

As search engine marketting (SEO) and his social brother (SMO) came on earth the thin line beetween a free and open source internet is becaming less and less tangible.
They both do and manage the information, we need them actually to visible or to find content faster and with more accuracy. So we finish to pay somehow to be there, as a data (users) or as an advertiser (content publishers).

What happened ?

As their new respective “open source” format (Instant Articles for Facebook, AMP for Google) were published, i’m not wondering anymore. Invented to make the mobile web faster, these are made by them, for them, to use less bandwith. Not for people as they say.

They are pushing content publisher to use it, leaving the good old internet HTML. The problem is the same as we faced when apps became a common standard, new things to develop, badly debugged and we are forced by them to use it to keep our content on the top of your search results/news feed. In the end, only them really wins, not users.

AMP results are now pushed on top or results (it’s kinda official) for Google Search. Facebook will surely push this content over others, as it’s a really basic page, you surely will return to Facebook, because this is nearly website agnostic. And show more their ads.

Let’s be honest

Faster web is a good thing, however web culture as always been based on open standard made by W3C (What is W3C ?) or open source projects. This time it’s not, Facebook and Google did it on their own, i saw news that Ãpple might push be working on the same kind of standard.

Trends on the net are common processus like responsive design websites is slowly gaining more trafic as mobile apps interest is decreasing.
This is logical, it’s more user friendly to go on a website than to download and app. People get used to it. Website makers and designer now have great tools to only work on one skelleton for mobile and desktop.

We only need a common standard, which already exists, it’s called HTML5.

Of mice and men

Main problem remains the same for huge companies : how to stay on top ?

Build a prison is a possibility. This is somehow really simple : make a standard, be an outrageous leader on your market, impose this standard. You want old web ? Search it on Google …

Mobile is now more than half of web trafic, so making new standard for mobile is surely a good way to keep people using your services.

We will need to pay to stay on the trend, people will mostly get larger companies content, internet diversity dies here.

Behind the new feature

The truth is simple : they can force you to use their internet. Somehow Facebook already tryed in India via Internet.org, leaving a “better served internet” to poor populations. So kind of them, let’s click on that ad for Amazon. India refused because this is not internet, this is internet by Facebook.

I’m not an utopist thinking internet have ever been a politicaly free influence area. Those features are clearly not what people wants or needs. By presenting insidiously as something good and cool, they deceive the public about their real motives.

So what can we do ?

Facebook Instant articles and AMP project are good ideas but here is the problem : websites can’t really control it. You can’t publish your own website, just a “it’s faster” web version. Without features making it innovative, without your related links except if you know how to dev, without any wondering for recent ground breaking UX new ideas. You can trash your magnificent website and you can publish their own good advertisements with their consent.

Internet shall always be a free and creative space, we should be able to decide what we want to show.

OpenMinded Magazine (most of my work now) need their traffic and exposure. I don’t know how many website will refuse to use this but we surely will until we are forced to.

The web don’t need this. Google and Facebook are not the internet, let’s keep them in their role. They already have enough power.