I have been playing with Facebook Lite during the past week. Facebook Lite is a cleaner, simpler version of Facebook which they have been testing during the past week (mostly on Indian users).
The first thing you would notice about Facebook Lite is its speed. It loads almost instantaneously even on slower connections. The main reason behind this is the reduced JavaScript overhead. Facebook Lite gets rid of all the fancy additional features like Pokes and Highlights. Here’s how the simplified home page looks like:
The most notable omission from the home page is the status update box. Given that status updates have become a pivotal component of the Facebook experience, this is surprising (and rather inconvenient). Navigation Links and Highlights are also missing. Facebook has also tweaked the Life stream and by default shows Top Stories (most popular updates) instead of All Stories.
Here’s a screenshot of the Facebook Lite Profile page.
All the basic features are there but have been greatly simplified to improve the page load times. You can still post status updates, share links, images and videos and edit your profile.
The Inbox and Events page has also undergone similar transformations. However, the settings page is not yet available in Facebook Lite.
Many bloggers have been portraying Facebook Lite as a twitter competitor. While the simplified Facebook life stream does look similar to one’s Twitter stream, I don’t really see Facebook Lite as an assault on Twitter. Facebook may not be MySpace, but over the years it has accumulated a decent amount of fat. Facebook Lite is a welcome addition which users with slower internet connections would appreciate. It is also ideal for Mobile devices. I have been using Facebook Lite on my mobile phone (SE k810i with Opera Mini) and it definitely feels better than Facebook Mobile.
I have been fiddling about in it too. I find it to be a cartload better than the cluttered and overloaded regular interface.
Shaunak De´s last blog ..Sundown Silhouette
Coming from Orkut, I like the way the “bloated” Facebook behaved! But as I get used to it, I am finding the lite version more useful, as it irons out all the updates from those useless applications our friends use.
But still what I miss in Facebook is the community of Orkut (discussion forums) and the “About Me” sections are almost always not up to the mark, I feel.
Sujith Abraham´s last blog ..A software engineers Orkut Profile!
Facebook Groups are the orkut equivalent of communities.
It was initially for a selected number of users but I just tried it now and it works on my account too. Words can’t express my joy as I found the normal Facebook frustrating on dial-up connection. Using Opera 10′s Turbo feature, Facebook Lite has proven to be easy breezy.
its, great idea… facebook is slow.