Depending on who you listen to the Facebook Lite offering that was inadvertently sent to many Facebook users is everything from a direct frontal assault on Twitter to a speed enhancer. Since this product was not even supposed to be released as it was it may not really matter what it really is because it’s not really ready to even ‘be’ quite yet. Two takes came from Mashable and TechCrunch and they are very different.
Mashable’s take can be summed up as follows
It is a completely stripped-down version of the Facebook platform. From what we can tell, it is almost like a Twitterstream: you can see your most recent status updates and the updates of your friends. There is a left-hand navigation with four main categories: Wall, Info, Friends, and Photos & Videos. It does little more than that.
TechCrunch says
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.
Pretty different takes on the same situation and one that was a mistake apparently to even have been given to the folks that got to take a look. Speaking of taking a look here you go.
While both scenarios are plausible what eventually happens is on Facebook, not the folks in the media. Maybe they will release it under the guise of a speedier version of the site but really look for more people to adopt the service in its leaner state. Either way it looks like Facebook is addressing a need of some portion of the 300 million or so users it has so for now let’s just leave it at that.
