The Google-led Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) initiative has launched, with the intention of significantly speeding up the mobile web.

One of the criteria that Google uses in its algorithm to rank websites is speed. On mobile in particular, many websites perform slowly due to the extensive amount of downloads needed.

As such, publishers opting to use AMP will be rewarded with increased visibility in mobile search results for news, including Google’s News Carousel – the highly coveted positioning at the top of mobile search results.

The Guardian has embraced this change, having worked with Google on the AMP project since its inception. This new option competes with the likes of Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles. However, these services are considered much more restricted.

So far, advertisers are unsure how best to proceed with the transition to AMP; however according to the IAB, there is confidence in the market that the service will take off.