[stetrain]

I think modern phone processors, as limited as they are, could be pretty fast at rendering classic HTML and CSS. I know we want more from our webpages now, but the rendering as a static image is part of what makes AMP feel so weird and not like a normal webpage.

[ec109685]

It’s not a static image. It gets rendered into an iframe they swap in, which is only possible because they control the html rendered given the constraints of the amp format.

[stetrain]

But is that really necessary?

HN for example loads quite fast on mobile. I don’t think there is anything about client-rendered HTML and CSS that can’t be adequately fast even on fairly restricted clients.

Of course you can slow things down with advanced features, my point was that a google-led test for certified “Fast Webpages” that get promoted in search results could have most of the positive impacts of AMP without the strange complexities.