Google unveiled a mobile publishing platform aimed at making news articles on smartphones load faster, catching up with similar services recently introduced by Facebook and Apple.

Google’s service, called the “Accelerated Mobile Pages Project,” or AMP, is aimed at loading mobile Web pages almost instantly instead of requiring consumers to wait several seconds to open an article.

For tech companies like Internet search giant Google, improving the experience of reading news on smartphones increases the likelihood that consumers will continue using their services. The companies are also seeking solutions to make sure ads don’t slow down the access to articles, as many consumers have downloaded ad blockers to make them load faster – potentially threatening publishers’ advertising revenues.

Almost 30 publishers from around the world, including the New York Times, Guardian, BBC, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed and Vox Media, will publish articles on AMP, which is in a test format and will be available to the public at a later date. Many of those media outlets have also agreed to publish stories directly to Facebook’s and Apple’s news readers.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.