In relation to the ongoing legal proceedings against Google about the damage that AMP technology has caused to a multitude of publishers and publishing companies, a derivative arises that could also involve Automattic, the company of Matt Mullenweg , co-creator of WordPress and top leader from the company that offers WordPress.com among other services related to WordPress.
Index of contents
Why are Google being sued for AMP technology?
When Google launched the AMP technology , or accelerated mobile pages, 5 years ago it began to apply a selection criterion in the featured news carousel of the mobile results of the Chrome browser (known as Top Stories) through which the pages were prioritized AMP on those that did not use this technology, without attending to the fair criteria of content relevance and SEO .
By the way, AMP technology also prioritized the loading speed of ads served from Google Ads technology over other ads from other servers .
This has caused many publishers to lose millions of euros during the last 5 years , and these, feeling negatively affected by the practically mandatory implementation of AMP technology, are now opening legal cases against Google for this reason.
But not only that, but also Google assured that AMP technology would improve the loading times of its pages on mobile devices, when in reality this was false , as it was demonstrated, and now Google has recognized that it was not , that many publishers they delivered their pages faster than with AMP with its own technical solutions.
In short, Google took advantage of its monopoly position in the browser market to impose a technology, AMP, that severely penalized both loading speed and publishers’ revenue .
What about Automattic?
Automattic is the company that contributes the most to the WordPress project, by its own conviction yes, but also by its own interest , since all its products depend on the development of WordPress.
So much so that the Automattic company has full-time employees for the different projects of the WordPress community , practically dominating the debates about almost any decision that affects the community .
Although all communication environments in the WordPress community are open and participatory, in the end the reality is that almost all the decisions are made by Matt Mullenweg or someone from his company, such as Josepha Haden, leader of the organizational division of open source projects. of Automattic , and also appointed by Mullenweg as executive director of the WordPress project , without vote or proposals or any consensus, it was a totally business decision, as we say in Spain.
This is extensible to practically all the WordPress project workgroups, where you will always find one or more people, paid by Automattic, guiding, proposing, or directly deciding where WordPress is going in all its areas .
I am not going to go into the motivations of each person, not even those of the companies that contribute to WordPress, which I understand will be double meaning: philosophical and lucrative, I do not know if in equal parts or not, but the reality is which is about who decides the present and future of WordPress .
Why could Automattic be involved in these legal proceedings against Google?
It turns out that Automattic has played an important role in the massive rollout of Google’s AMP technology.
As soon as AMP was born, in 2016, Automattic partnered with Google to promote AMP as an early adopter of this technology, first on WordPress.com, and then Automattic created the first versions of the AMP plugin for standalone WordPress websites.
It seems clear that Automattic has played an important role in promoting AMP adoption, significantly opening the door to the WordPress ecosystem.
And, I do not know what you will think, but facilitating the adoption of a technology of this type, with the overwhelming impulse of Google and the facilities when it comes to offering it to more than 40% of all websites (those made with WordPress) seems to be an important bet on the part of Automattic .
And of course, now, demonstrated that Google’s goal with AMP did not seem to be to make a faster, more accessible and more democratic website , as any impulse from the WordPress community should be, but rather other types of much more mundane interests, it turns out that Automattic It could have been stained, and I do not know if in the future sued, for this bet.
If we add to this, that behind the impulse of AMP technology, it has been discovered that Google’s ultimate goal was to promote the NERA project , an attempt by Google to control the entire advertising market, in its favor, of course, it turns out that At the end of it all, a summary of the facts would show that Automattic has made it easier for Google to massively introduce, through the WordPress project, a technology that intended to make a website less free for pure monetary interests .
Of course, I am not saying that Automattic and its contributors were aware of these dark interests , but in the end the result is that they have contributed to them, and have involved the entire WordPress project, thanks to their perhaps excessive control of the decisions that are made in WordPress.
Now what about AMP?
Well, in case it is still not clear to you, it takes time to uninstall AMP from your WordPress website , here is a very simple guide :
How to properly disable AMP in WordPress without 404 errors or messing up your SEO
As a direct consequence of the lawsuits against Google for the dark interests of AMP, it is already being shown that AMP pages have ceased to dominate the Top Stories of Google results , which shows 2 things:
- That Google was clearly forcing the visibility of AMP pages over others.
- That once the parameters that caused this manipulation were eliminated, the non-AMP pages should always be higher in the search engine results.
- That Google has lied – again – about their true interests, which are not to make a better website, but a more profitable website for them.
And now what about Automattic and the WordPress community?
Regarding the role of Automattic and the WordPress community, I think that we should all learn a lot from this problem , especially when nothing has happened, another initiative has emerged, already confirmed, this time sponsored and finally led by 3 Google employees and 2 Yoast employees (recently acquired by a hosting company), to create a new team in WordPress of performance and web speed .
If we do not want the interests of the companies to take precedence over those of the WordPress project, it is better for us to be vigilant to the members of the community (all, you, me, all) with the initiatives that arise in the different working groups, reviewing always at least …
- Who does the proponent of the initiative work for?
- Who does the initiative primarily benefit?
- Is the initiative aligned with the philosophy and objectives of the open source WordPress project ?
- Who and how will decisions be made about the initiative?
In addition, it is easier than you imagine to distinguish a community project from one driven by commercial interests:
- A project driven by commercial interests always focuses on an “urgent need” and aims to “accelerate decision processes.”
- A project driven by the interest of the open source community will always focus on the goals of the project, its real need, and making it as open and collaborative as possible.
Believe it or not, when an initiative arises that is not aligned with the principles, objectives and philosophy of WordPress , or it is seen that its process is not as open and collaborative as it should, if enough voices from the community arise to stop , modify or redirect the initiative towards the best possible good for the WordPress project, there will be no company that dares to face the global WordPress community , if only for not generating a negative feeling towards the brand.
You would be surprised by the power of the voice of the silent majority, when it stops being silent 😉
And you, w
hat do you think of all this move? Were you surprised by Google’s interests, did you still think it was the “Don’t be Evil” company? And about Automattic, do you think they knew what was behind it? Do you think the WordPress governance project should be revived to democratize decisions ?
Did you like this article? You can’t imagine what you’re missing on YouTube !
