MAML: Towards a Faster Web in Developing Regions

TL;DR

This paper introduces MAML, a new web specification language designed to improve webpage loading times and reduce data usage in developing regions by simplifying webpage structure and scripting, while maintaining compatibility with legacy browsers.

Contribution

MAML is a novel flat layout-based web language that reduces computational and data demands, replacing excessive JS with essential functionalities, and is backward compatible with existing browsers.

Findings

MAML achieves significant size reductions and faster load times compared to AMP.

MAML maintains visual and functional correctness with minimal developer effort.

Page load times are reduced by tens of seconds under challenging network conditions.

Abstract

The web experience in developing regions remains subpar, primarily due to the growing complexity of modern webpages and insufficient optimization by content providers. Users in these regions typically rely on low-end devices and limited bandwidth, which results in a poor user experience as they download and parse webpages bloated with excessive third-party CSS and JavaScript (JS). To address these challenges, we introduce the Mobile Application Markup Language (MAML), a flat layout-based web specification language that reduces computational and data transmission demands, while replacing the excessive bloat from JS with a new scripting language centered on essential (and popular) web functionalities. Last but not least, MAML is backward compatible as it can be transpiled to minimal HTML/JavaScript/CSS and thus work with legacy browsers. We benchmark MAML in terms of page load times and sizes, using a translator which can automatically port any webpage to MAML. When compared to the popular Google AMP, across 100 testing webpages, MAML offers webpage speedups by tens of seconds under challenging network conditions thanks to its significant size reductions. Next, we run a competition involving 25 university students porting 50 of the above webpages to MAML using a web-based editor we developed. This experiment verifies that, with little developer effort, MAML is quite effective in maintaining the visual and functional correctness of the originating webpages.