Update: As of April 20, 2010, Facebook Lite is no more. Sigh.
http://www.facebook.com/facebook?v=wall&story_fbid=110629035639137
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Okay, so it's really called Facebook Lite—Facebook's latest attempt to Twitterize itself. It's just arrived today, so this is my first look at it, and my first thoughts about it. If I say anything here that turns out to be incorrect, please let me know and I'll set the record straight.
To get to Facebook Lite, simply go to lite.facebook.com. If you're already logged into regular Facebook (Facebook Classic?), you won't need to log in again. The first time you go here, you'll get this pop-up window.
When you click Start Facebook Lite, you'll be taken to your new, calorie-reduced News Feed. (There's also a column on the right-hand side with People You May Know and an ad that I don't have in the screenshot below.)
Note: I'm not seeing any kind of button to take you back to regular Facebook, but you can get there again by typing in www.facebook.com in your browser.
What I've read about Facebook Lite so far says that the News Feed only shows you your friends' status lines, but that doesn't appear to be entirely correct, because I have a lot of posted Links in mine as well. I suspect that anything your friends type into the What's On Your Mind? box, including any attached links, photos, or videos, is what appears here. You'll also get the same updates from the Pages you're a fan of.
What you WON'T see (and what will be the primary reason a lot of people will like this version and a lot of people won't) are all the quizzes, game results, who became a friend of whom notices, etc.
It doesn't seem like you can hide anyone from the feed, but it does retain your hidden settings from the full version (i.e. if you hid someone there, his/her updates won't appear here).
You can update your own status from this page by clicking the Write button.
If you change your mind, click outside the box to close it. (Heaven forbid they use the same X button they have in regular Facebook to do the same thing—that would just make it too easy for us...)
You can also post photos and videos from here but, for some reason I can't fathom, not Links. And note that you can't simply post a Wall photo—you're forced to create an album.
Anything you post on Facebook Lite will also appear in the News Feed on regular Facebook as well. I'm assuming FL inherits all the privacy settings from FB as well, but I haven't tested that to confirm.
If you click the Top Stories link at the top of the page, you get a subset of posts in your News Feed. I have absolutely NO idea what criteria they're using to decide which ones make the cut—kind of like the way they choose your Highlights on regular FB, I guess. If you do know, please let me know!
The Notifications link takes you to a page that lists all the things your friends have Commented on or Liked, and probably some other stuff as well, although that seems to be the bulk of it in my case.
Another mystery: I'm not sure why they replaced the Friends link in the top nav bar with Events. If you do want to see your list of friends, as well as the Pages you're a fan of, go to your Profile page.
If you click on one of them, you'll get a Lite version of their Wall as well. The reason my T4L Page isn't showing anything recent is because I import my blog posts using the Notes feature and I guess Notes aren't Lite-friendly.
From what I can see so far, that's about it as far as Facebook Lite goes. I doubt I'll be using it very much (at all) because a) there are a lot of things I like to see in FB that don't show up here and I don't really want to be switching between the two all the time (especially since there's no one-click option to do so, and b) I can always Filter on Status Lines in regular Facebook if that's all I want to see and hide people/Pages I don't want. In other words, I can pretty much customize Facebook Classic to my own preferences, whereas here I'm stuck with what Facebook thinks I want to see.
So what do YOU think? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Couldn't care less? Leave a comment below. I'm really curious to hear other people's opinions about this.
Posted in Facebook, How To, My Two Cents, Social Media, Twitter
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I like it. I’m just worried that I’ll miss some things using this version. Like, as much as I dislike NOT having control over the right-hand column, I DO find friends tagged in interesting photos, etc. in this area.
I have noticed the past couple of days, and maybe this is because they have been implementing this new version, that people I have hidden in my newsfeed, have been appearing on and off throughout the day. And this is before I tried the Lite version myself.
I’d just like to say I found the overview of FB Lite very useful. I’m in the UK and Lite isn’t available here yet. From what you’ve said, though, I don’t think I’ll be switching.
As a recent new user of FB and Twitter, I found the TFL articles invaluable. I add this one to that list.
Thanks, Thomas! I saw on Mashable that some people in the UK had gotten access to FB Lite, so you may see it before too long.
Anne, that’s interesting about the hidden people reappearing. I haven’t seen that happening, but they have had issues with huge blocks of posts not showing up at times.
Thanks Elizabeth. I don’t know how you keep on top of all this. I find it very tiring.
When I saw “Facebook lite” I wanted to scream. Yet one more thing t learn.
I know they’re trying to improve things, but all I want them to do is move birthday notices to the top of the right hand column. That’s all. I can handle everything else.