It’s no surprise to me that Facebook has mimicked MySpace in creating a diet version of their website.  Facebook Lite is now live, offering Facebook users an experience without all of the bells and whistles their regular Facebook has.  Facebook maintains that this is an effort to allow access to their website from slow internet connections and the fact that they’ve been testing the website in India makes that claim sound pretty accurate.  However, the lite version does more than just load at a faster speed.  Facebook became famous partly because of the absence of clutter.  This appeals to many people who just want to stay in touch with friends and not play Mafia Wars and Farmville.  I’ve heard a lot of people reluctant to join Facebook, or even use it because it seemed too complicated and they had just gotten comfortable with MySpace.  For loyal Twitter users who refuse to use the likes of Facebook and MySpace again, it could draw them back. 

But back to the whole premise of Facebook Lite.  Yes, I have the Facebook app on my iPhone; however, if I am sent an email stating someone commented on my status, I often just click the link which takes me directly to that comment so that I don’t have to go on a wild goose chase searching for the damn thing.  I like this feature, but Facebook bogs down my iPhone and sometimes even kills the browser altogether.  Trying to navigate through settings can be a nightmare.  The same thing goes for MySpace.  However, I am able to access the non-mobile version of Twitter without killing myself in the process.  I do hope that both MySpace and Facebook start sending their notification emails with links to the Lite and mobile versions so that I may choose which one I want to go to.  MySpace makes it damn near impossible to log into the regular web version from my phone, constantly telling me I need to log in over and over again.  Facebook has refused to log me in at times as well, but at least Facebook will take me to the comment whereas MySpace sends me directly to the page where I need to choose between the regular version and the mobile version, thus negating the purpose of clicking the link in the first place. 

I’m a regular user of Facebook and I don’t have any plans to switch to Facebook Lite, but I like it as an option for those who aren’t social media savvy and for those who have slow connections.  I may even decide to use it on my iPhone but the new version of the Facebook App has proved to be a big upgrade.  If they include the link on their notification emails, I’m sure I’ll be back.

Also, I just created a new page, so add me on Facebook.

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