Three Things I Love About Facebook Lite

Update: As of April 20, 2010, Facebook Lite is no more. Sigh.

http://www.facebook.com/facebook?v=wall&story_fbid=110629035639137

*****

And one thing I hate.

When I first checked out Facebook Lite, I wasn't all that impressed with it. Then, when Facebook redesigned their home page yet again—and not for the better—I decided to give the streamlined version another look.

And (with apologies to the McDonald's advertising agency), I'm lovin' it!

Here are the three main reasons Facebook Lite is now my default interface.

The home page

It is SO much easier to catch up on my friends' posts now. Unlike the regular Live Feed, which is cluttered with all the "X is now a fan of Y" items and posts from applications (like who's sending a heart to whom), Facebook Lite's News Feed only includes the things I'm really interested in: status lines, photos, and links—and it includes them from ALL your friends, not just the subset Facebook thinks you care about the most.

The other bonus is that, because Facebook Lite doesn't have the left-hand column that has all the filters in regular FB, the column with the posts is wider, so each entry takes up less vertical space and the page as a whole seems less noisy.

With these differences, I can scroll through the posts so much faster. I really notice it when I log in in the morning and I can catch up on what everyone's up to in about a screen and a half (vs. three or four usually on regular FB).

Note: Facebook Lite also has a Top Stories option that is equally as useless as the News Feed on regular Facebook, but it doesn't keep switching back to that view against your will.

Photos

On regular Facebook the photo captions and comments area is below the picture. Since I work on a laptop, I usually have to scroll down to see them. In Facebook Lite, they're to the right of the picture, so I can see them without scrolling.

Notifications

I never remembered to check my notifications in regular Facebook, because you had to click the icon in the bottom right to see them. And, when I did remember, all I saw was a long list of people having done certain things, but it wasn't exactly enlightening. You can't see which posts your friends commented on, let alone what they actually said about it.

Facebook Lite actually has a small text link at the top of the page that tells you how many unread notifications you have. And when you click THAT link, this is what you see:

You can see which posts your friends are responding to and all the comments that have been made on them. This is so much better than the other system that I've turned off my e-mail notifications for when people comment on stuff, because I'm not so worried about missing them. (And that will clean a LOT of messages out of my Inbox...)

And now the thing I hate...

No, it's not the fact that I can't post Links. Though that is a bit of a nuisance, it's easy enough to switch back to regular Facebook when I want to post one, or I just do it directly from the other website using my Share on Facebook button.

No, the REALLY dumb thing on Facebook Lite is that there's no Share option under people's posts.

Hello Facebook? You're a social networking site. Your entire raison d'être is to have friends share interesting information with each other!

I don't get this at all. It's not like the tiny Share link under each post is suddenly going to overwhelm the page—there's already a Comment and Like link under each one. And, unlike the lack of a Link option, this one really is a pain. Because if you do want to share it, you have to go back to regular Facebook and scroll through all the posts until you find the one you want. (Although I usually just click the link to go to the website and use my Share on Facebook button again.)

I really hope this gets corrected soon. But even with this limitation, I still find Facebook Lite to be much more user-friendly than the regular interface, so I do plan to keep using it as my default—at least until Facebook decides to change this one too... you know, to "improve" the experience again.

How about you? Have you given Facebook Lite a shot? What did you think? Share your comments below.

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