Facebook Lite Is Twitteresque, and That's Good

As far as Facebook is concerned, the “liter” the better, writes Rafe Needleman for CNET. The site’s scaled-down “Lite” version is now available in the US and India, and the "new layout feels simpler and faster, almost Twitter-like.” Gone is “most of the navigation and info page that was on the left,” leaving users undistracted by the “mostly superfluous details that resided there.”

The bare-bones approach means that in addition to a “simpler” and “easier to read” experience, pages “load faster due to what appears to be HTML optimization,” Needleman writes. His profile page is now a svelte 11K, down from 44K in “Classic,” and “all pages on the site seem to be affected” positively. One caveat: the smaller pages are likely “courtesy of a dramatically decreased advertising load, which I doubt we can count on continuing.” (More Facebook stories.)