Facebook Lite goes live; slimmed-down version hones in on the stream, sharing
Facebook rolled out a slimmer, faster version of its site today called Facebook Lite. It’s meant to support Facebook’s expansion internationally to developing countries, where bandwidth constraints and the lack of knowledge about how to use the service might make the current version too complicated or slow.
The Lite interface was inadvertently shown to some first-world users a month ago, as the company was testing the service. Given Facebook’s gradual feature creep, there’s a chance it might become popular in the developed world too. Facebook Lite’s options are pretty limited: you can write on your wall, post photos and video and browse other people’s profiles. There are no apps or special boxes. Most surprising, there are notably fewer ads.
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About the Author, Kim-Mai Cutler
Kim-Mai was born and raised a stone's throw from Apple headquarters in Cupertino by a devout Hewlett-Packard family. After attending UC Berkeley, Kim-Mai worked for Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in New York, Los Angeles, London and Buenos Aires. Follow her on Twitter at @kimmaicutler, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.