Google and Twitter to offer ‘instant articles’

The new venture between the search giant and social platform centers on “instant articles,” which The New York Times describes as “a new kind of web link and article storage system that would load online news articles and digital magazine pieces in a few milliseconds.” That’s a fraction of the time it takes for a standard website to load.

Recode first reported the partnership, which, unlike proprietary ventures from Facebook, Apple and Snapchat, would be open-sourced.

Though the idea of articles popping up faster may seem like a no-brainer to users, the distinction will be critical for publishers and advertisers who now have options to publish directly to Facebook and Apple’s new Apple News application.

Publishers keep 100 percent of the ad revenue on Facebook and Apple News, and early reports seem to indicate that the Google/Twitter venture will show the publisher’s original ad that it sold with the story.