The Chromium-based browser Brave has introduced a new feature called De-AMP. The principle is simple: it is neither more nor less than putting an end to AMP pages, this format put in place by Google to lighten and improve the loading of certain pages on mobile, by allowing users to bypass them to get the information at the source, directly on the websites of the authors of the original pages. Criticized by many content publishers despite the lobbying work of Google, AMP pages are not in the odor of holiness on the side of Brave either.
Brave Browser is an internet browser based on the Chromium project but whose security orientation is much more important than that of Chrome: no tracker, no advertising targeting.
- Downloads: 62
- Release date : 04/15/2022
- Author : Brave Software Inc.
- Licence : Free license
- Categories:
Internet - Operating system : Android – Linux – Windows – iOS iPhone / iPad – macOS
For the privacy-focused browser, which recently passed the 50 million monthly active user mark, the AMP format is “harmful to privacy” and “helps Google monopolize and control more web direction,” as stated by its management in a blog post published on Tuesday.
“An ethical web should be a user-centric web, where users have control over their browsing and know with whom they are communicating. AMP (as well as the next version of Google, whose current name is not yet known, “AMP 2.0″) is incompatible with a user-oriented web”, argues the staff of the browser.
Hence the idea of launching De-AMP. “De-AMP adds to Brave’s long list of features that put users first on the web,” Brave management said. “Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether. And in cases where this is not possible, Brave will observe pages being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP/Google code from being loaded and executed. »
The AMP format still under fire from critics
The De-AMP function is already available in its Nightly and Beta versions. It will soon be enabled in upcoming 1.38 Desktop and Android versions before launching on iOS.
This isn’t the first time the privacy-focused browser maker has gone after Google. Brave has previously accused the search engine giant of violating one of the principles of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) surrounding consent to data collection. Tempers are also running high in the US, where a coalition of 10 US states sued Google in 2020 alleging the company is relying on the AMP format to impose Google’s stranglehold on the advertising market. in line.
“Internal Google documents belie the public image of Google engineers having fun on their sunny Mountain View campus while trying to make the world a better place. On the contrary, to establish its dominance in the online display markets, Google has repeatedly and shamelessly violated antitrust and consumer protection laws,” argued this coalition when launching this complaint.
For its part, Google states on its website that the objective of the AMP format is to improve the performance of websites in order to create “user-oriented experiences”.
While “most mobile users leave a page that takes more than three seconds to load”, Google highlights this format and argues that “when a landing page is fast, it tends to generate more conversions “. An argument that still seems to have trouble hitting the mark.