Google to Launch Its Version of Facebook Instant Articles Next Week: Report

Re/code reports that Google has started sending media invites for an event on Wednesday in New York. The invite reportedly reads, "A new open source initiative for the mobile Web," tipping towards the launch of a new feature altogether.

(Also see: How Google and Facebook Are Creating an Internet of Walled Gardens)

The first details about any such feature being developed by Google surfaced earlier this month. It was reported by NYT that Google was working with Twitter and news publishers like The Guardian and New York Times for the new 'Instant Articles' feature.

It was reported to look like Facebook's Instant Articles; though Google's version was said to create a Web link alongside an article storage system. The feature was reported to present online news articles and digital magazines in a few milliseconds to users, instead of the 5 to 10 seconds it would normally take. The most notable highlight of any such feature was to "develop a universal standard for publishers", according to NYT.

Danny Sullivan, founding editor of Search Engine Land, had commented on Google's upcoming product, "Google and Twitter are rightly fearful that publishers are going to start doing something specifically for Facebook and they will become an afterthought."

Re/code adds that Google's version of Instant Articles differs from Facebook in one very crucial aspect - Google will not host the content. Instead, it would present articles pulled from cached versions from search. The technology would be released as an open source tool to other platforms, with Twitter just the first major partner involved. Publishers interested would have to slightly modify their Web code to make it easily accessible for caching. NYT had reported Google's cached instant articles would seem like their non-cached counterparts, replete with banner ads, photos, and links to other stories.

In contrast, Facebook's Instant Articles involves hosting the content itself - so that it loads instantly. Facebook achieves faster loading by pre-loading articles as users scroll News Feed. Because the article has already been loaded in the background, pictures pop up instantly when tapped the link, and embedded videos start playing the moment scrolled down to them.

Lately, not only Google and Facebook have been trying hands on providing access to articles to users, but Samsung and Apple have also tried hands.

Recently, a news aggregator platform was launched by Samsung months after Apple announced News, an improved app replacing Apple Newsstand for users to keep up with news and articles.