Fast on the heels of acquiring FriendFeed, Facebook is about to roll-out Facebook Lite. As a quasi-Twitter platform, one can only wonder if it comes with half the calories but allows for more characters per morsel? If Twitter is your micro-blogging maincourse du jour, what could Facebook possibly be offering to alter your diet?
Update: June 20, 2010 – BBC reports Facebook has shut down its Lite site aimed at users
with slow or poor internet connections. The stripped down
version of the original ran for around seven months.
Mashable’s breaking story on this topic seems to think its a direct assault on Twitter, as "Facebook continues to find ways to make itself competitive" with the social network that up to now has continued to allude it.
Mashable’ s report provided what they believe to be a screenshot of Facebook Lite’s status page:..
Facebook Lite Proposed Screen Shot
If you are one of Facebook ‘heavy weight’ user, you might have already been selected to be a beta tester. Apparently its a limited test for only a subset of users.
On the other hand, some Facebook traditionalists will have no part of this new version. A ‘Facebook Lite Sucks’ fan base has already been formed to voice their vehement opposition. A little ‘lite’ on membership (only 14 at the time of this posting), the criticism on the other hand is fairly heavy duty... with expletives such as "WTF" and outright denouncements like "You Suck Mark Zuckerberg" gracing its walls!
The main difference between Facebook and Twitter is Facebook is all about communication with known people, while Twitter is about broadcasting to the world. These divergent approaches are why bloggers, celebrities, news organizations, political parties and social media gurus use Twitter and not Facebook status updates. While Facebook has a lot of bells and whistles, the shear weight of its content, apps, contests, fan pages,etc is actually where it falls short. The beauty of Twitter is in its simplicity. Facebook Lite is a way for Facebook to face up to that reality and try to capture some of that magic for its own.
So will Facebook Lite become your diet of choice as you switch to a more svelte platform to conduct your microblogging exercise regime? After all, the reality show, ‘The Biggest Loser’ is all about shedding some unnecessary baggage. Let’s see if Facebook has a shot at that same goal!
