I fully understand that Facebook must be an extremely hard site to design. I mean, it has 400 million users, many of whom use it several times a day. If you make on little change, millions of people are going to freak out, and get confused. For an example of this, see any time Facebook tweaks anything on its site. But saying that a lot of Facebook is a cluttered, complicated mess is an understatement, in my opinion. And that’s why the news today that Facebook has killed off the lite version of its site is disappointing — not because it was great, but because it was better.
When Facebook Lite first debuted back in September (after an accidental preview in the U.S. in August), we hailed it as a return to the simpler roots of Facebook. Gone were the mess of settings, bottom menu bars, and crap applications — the emphasis was almost entirely on the stream, profiles, and events. Since then, Facebook has tweaked its full version to be more Lite-like, including the removal of the ridiculous bottom toolbar, the addition of icon indicators along the top toolbar, and a clearer emphasis on events. To be clear, Facebook proper today looks much, much better than it did a year ago. But some elements are still a mess, such as the ugly comments under feed items. And some continue to get worse, like the headache-inducing privacy settings. → Read More
So, we now have Facebook Lite in the U.S., a slimmed down, sexier version of Facebook. It’s been said for a while that Facebook may have a long term problem with Twitter because it was too bloated, while Twitter was so light and simple — talk of that should die down now.
So how will Twitter respond? I have a feeling we’re about to enter a war similar to the war razor blade companies engage in. You have 2 blades? We’ll do 3! Then we’ll do 4, etc. Except here, less is more. So behold, my idea for Twitter Lite! → Read More
Well here it is. Just as we first discovered a few weeks ago, Facebook Lite has just been released for U.S. users to test out. Simply put, the site is SO much cleaner than Facebook regular, and much, much nicer to look at. Did I mention much, much faster?
Originally intended to be used in countries where high speed Internet connections are sparse or non-existant, apparently Facebook has realized there’s a real desire among all its users to have a smaller version of the service. On top of a launch in the U.S., the service is also live in India right now, we’re told. → Read More
So, we’ve already explained why the newly revealed “Facebook Lite” at the very least wasn’t conceived to be a “Twitter-killer,” but it does look interesting. The service, which is currently being tested in India (and sadly, not in the U.S. despite the messages sent out last night), has an extremely clean look and feel to it — one that is reminiscent of the old days of Facebook, when its simplified look drew users away from the cluttered MySpace. Of course now, Facebook is itself cluttered with settings, applications and toolbars. So to many, this Facebook Lite design would be welcome.
Check it out in the images below we received from a user, Azhar Chougle, testing it in India. He notes that the third image (the one showing something broken) occurs when you try to go to the Events and Settings, which apparently aren’t ready for Facebook Lite yet. You’ll also notice that “Events” is now in the top nav bar, something which is not the case on the current version of Facebook. → Read More
So, the web pretty much exploded tonight over the appearance of something called “Facebook Lite,” a new service that’s apparently being beta tested by Facebook. But users who received the message that they were invited to test it out, were frustrated when the link didn’t work. There’s a reason for that: It was a mistake to roll the test out to most of these users tonight, Facebook has confirmed to us.
But, with the cat out of the bag, everyone is now rushing to reach some conclusions about what Facebook Lite actually is. Most of these assumptions revolve around Twitter and FriendFeed. The reasons for this should be obvious: First, Facebook and Twitter seem to have a nice rivalry going on to see who is the hottest social property. Second, Facebook just bought FriendFeed for $50 million, so it would seem possible that they want to develop a service just like that one. And third, the screenshot of Facebook Lite, which we found earlier, makes it look a lot like Twitter and FriendFeed.
But in reality, Facebook Lite has nothing to do with Twitter or FriendFeed — at least, not right now. Instead, it was designed to be used in parts of the world where broadband speeds vary and can be expensive, we’re being told by Facebook. Given that the initial testing of it has taken place in India over the past several days, this makes sense. → Read More
It looks like Facebook has tonight turned on a feature called “Facebook Lite” for some users to test out. We’re getting bombarded by tips about it, and some of us are seeing it as well. Unfortunately, it appears that it may not be fully ready for prime time yet, but we have more information and what looks to be a screenshot below, so keep reading.
So what is it? Well, it looks to be exactly what it says it is, a lighter version of Facebook. The beta tester message reads:
We are building a faster, simpler version of Facebook that we call Facebook Lite. It’s not finished yet and we have plenty of kinks to work out, but we would love to get your feedback on what we have built so far.
