Brief:

• Google updated its list of planned features for its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, the open source technology to make online content downloads faster for smartphones. The update recaps accomplishments from Q2 2017 and looks ahead to features that will be added in the next three months, including new templates to help design better-looking mobile sites. Publishers will be able to capture video-specific data that's associated with user actions like play and pause, according to a blog post by the company.
• The plans include better integration of ads in the AMP format landing pages among buy and sell-side platforms, offline support and improvements to mobile payments, MediaPost reported. Google also began focusing on improved analytics of e-commerce, video and event triggers. Adobe added support for AMP in its analytics platforms.
• Google said more than 1.5 billion AMP pages have been published and more than 100 analytics, adtech and content management system providers support the format.

Insight:

Amid criticism that it has too much control over the internet, Google is attempting to help publishers address several challenges, including the proliferation of ad blockers and the migration of online audiences to mobile apps. The company in April was criticized for a plan to disable some interruptive ad types in its Chrome browser, with regulatory groups citing anti-competitive concerns. Google claims in its blog post that the speed and new formats under AMP will improve ad rates for publishers.

This update aims to provided more detail about its new Real Time Config (RTC) feature for publishers. RTC helps publishers earn more from their AMP inventory by enhancing the ad request with cookie-based targeting data or audience-related information without harming the user experience on a mobile site, according to its blog post.

Facebook, whose share of the display ad market is estimated to reach 39% this year per eMarketer, has a fast-loading format called Instant Articles that's had a rocky relationship with publishers. The Guardian newspaper stopped using Instant Articles in April while also pulling out of Apple News, though the publication still uses Google AMP. 

Google is also expanding the number of e-commerce pages that are using the AMP format. Last year, eBay first introduced AMP support on about 15 million pages and is now rolling out even more. The latest AMP-optimized pages include all product pages with a specific focus on adding name brands. The pages are intended to give eBay users more targeted results to product searches, according to TechCrunch.