Brave, the privacy-focused browser has unveiled a new feature that allows users to navigate directly to the publisher’s website. The latest functionality called De-AMP will bypass accelerated mobile pages (AMP) hosted by Google and take users to the original website. According to Brave, AMP harms users’ privacy and promotes Google to monopolise the Web. The new feature will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from landing on AMP pages. When Brave cannot rewrite links, it will redirect users from AMP pages to non-AMP pages. The De-AMP feature is currently available in Brave Nightly and Beta version.
Brave on Tuesday announced the addition of a new De-AMP feature via a blog post. As mentioned, the new feature will help users automatically bypass a Google AMP page to visit the content’s original source directly. Brave notes that the AMP framework damages users’ privacy, security and internet experience. It claims that AMP helps Google to monopolise and control the direction of the Web.
De-AMP will protect users from AMP in several ways. The feature will rewrite links and URLs. When rewriting cannot be performed, Brave redirect users from AMP pages to non-AMP pages thus stopping the loading and execution of AMP or Google codes. Brave says it has modified Chromium to keep track of the loading of AMP pages. Additionally, the company is planning to extend the bounce tracking method, to detect when AMP URLs are about to be visited. Brave is planning to launch this in version 1.40.
De-AMP functionality is currently rolling out in Brave’s Beta and Nightly builds. It will be enabled in the upcoming 1.38 Desktop and Android versions soon. The Chromium-based browser will soon release the De-AMP feature on iOS as well.
Google presented AMP as a Web component framework that can be used to create user-first websites, stories, emails, and ads. But it has been widely criticised as an attempt by Google to employ its dominance on the Web. AMP pages are served from Google’s servers. Brave says AMP allows Google to require pages to be built in ways that benefit Google’s advertising systems.
