Facebook is not only launching products this week but also killing them. The company said this morning that it will no longer support Facebook Lite, a stripped-down version of its site meant to load faster and be more accessible in places without broadband. As of today, lite.facebook.com redirects to Facebook.
Lite was a short-lived product, having only gone live last September. The most probable explanation for the shutdown is that Facebook has since incorporated technology from Lite into its main product. It also requires continued effort to maintain two web versions — not to mention multiple mobile versions — as the larger product evolves. The company said in a wall post that it “learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site.” We’ve asked the folks at Facebook for additional comment and will update if they provide it. Lite had something like 70,000 fans on Facebook (or people who “like” it, in the new parlance).
One reason not to like Lite? It showed limited advertising and was disconnected from features like Facebook pages and applications. Ad Age called it “a black hole for brands.” Not a good idea to irritate the people who pay the bills.
Lite screenshot via TechCrunch.
Not only Facebook Lite, but also touch.facebook.com
[...] more here: Facebook Shuts Down Facebook Lite Posted by chumpette on April 20th, 2010 Tags: Facebook, Facebook, its-site, launching-products, [...]
[...] http://gigaom.com/2010/04/20/facebook-shuts-down-facebook-lite/ Share and [...]
[...] Facebook schließt Facebook Lite (bestätigt) Facebook Lite, eine schlanke Version von Facebook.com, wird nach etwas mehr als einem halben Jahr bereits wieder geschlossen. Mehr hier. [...]
And now also http://www.facebook.com.
They closed it all down!
Way to go!
So many people not knowing what to do now while Facebook is down
[...] appears that two Facebook features have gone the way of the Dodo bird: Facebook Lite & the “Like” [...]
[...] Via GigaOM [...]
Well that was just dumb. It was the only way some Fortune 500 companies would allow their employees to access Facebook. That’s cutting off well over a million users with one blow. Nice job Facebook!
for people missing facebook lite, theres always Facebook Purity http://www.fbpurity.com a browser addon that strips out the spammy rubbish fb spews out leaving a much leaner cleaner site.
I use Ad-Block
If you want a super-stripped-down version, use http://m.facebook.com
Shit dat lite.facebook.com is down. :(
But thanx a lot dear zepfanman ! dat u share the link dat i can use.. :)
[...] commentator calling the service “a black hole for brands.” ReadWriteWeb.com (4/20) , GigaOm [...]
we want lite facebook back this old version is too simple.
hopefully diaspora just goes and makes “facebook lite”. that’s good enough for what most people use facebook for. and the rest of the heavy users will be ridiculously hard to monetize through ads anyway.
once the old school ad buyers realize there’s literally no return on their ad spend.
gadaan gadaa bilisummaati!
[...] Facebook has also undertaken recent projects to improve site speed. A couple months ago the company killed its “Facebook Lite” product (a re-engineered version of the site built to be extremely fast), with the explanation being partly [...]
I didn’t like Lite at all.
best of all
Sure, you shut Facebook Lite down and now Facebook doesn’t work right!