Google launches "AMP Stories", much like the stories on Snapchat and Instagram

The Stories feature which was initially launched by Snapchat has become very popular among the social media users. After Snapchat and Instagram, Google has also implemented the Stories feature in its Google Search.

"AMP" stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages -- optimized web pages displayed on your smartphone via Google search results, and as the name would suggest, they load fast (in around a second) and use ten times fewer data than non-AMP pages. Now, instead of seeing the usual text links, you'll see image- and video-orientated stories, much like the ones you see on Instagram and Snapchat.

AMP stories' articles fill the screen and are image and video led. Users can tap on the home screen to read further or simply swipe to the next article. Google claims the format, which it is opening up to software developers, gives "novel ways to tell immersive stories" without the "prohibitively high start-up costs, particularly for small publishers".

Rudy Galfi, Product Manager for AMP at Google, said, "On mobile devices, users browse lots of articles, but engage with few in-depth. Images, videos, and graphics help get readers' attention as quickly as possible and keep them engaged through immersive and easily consumable visual information."

You can check out some of the early AMP Stories by using your mobile phone and searching for a publisher at g.co/ampstories.