A ‘Liter’ shade of pale
This is the second time in the same amount of weeks that I have found myself talking about Facebook - which is something of novelty in itself given that as my friends know I am not anywhere near as addicted to FB as many of my friends.
I have to be honest though that part of my reluctance stems from the fact that my home broadband connection is on occasions pitifully slow which leads to tantrums and I whilst I am ashamed to admit this, has been known to reduce me to tears.
Imagine my delight (well, o.k. marginal excitement and a slightly raised eyebrow) at the news that FB has seemingly launched a new version of the site with me in mind! Hurrah, hurrah I thought as whilst everyone goes on about the fact that FB benefits from having a ‘clean interface’, navigating all of its features is not always the easiest thing in the world and does tend to make process of logging on even more painful.
So then, what is this magical Lite I cried (oh the horror at having to use an Americanism) Well as the name implies, Facebook Lite is, well, light. Gone is much of the clutter and overhead nonsense that can make the Facebook experience confusing and time-consuming.
Facebook Lite profiles provide little more than the bare essentials: friends, photos, videos, events, info, inbox and wall. Updating your status and adding new content is essentially a one or two click process.
From a user experience perspective, FB Lite is FB heaven. It adds about as much Twitter-like simplicity as is probably possible on a fully-fledged social network.
However from a developer perspective, Facebook Lite is possibly one of the worst things that could have happened. That's because Facebook-lite is app-free. That's right, there are no third party apps available through it (or so I’ve been told on good authority). So if you've spent lots of time and money developing apps for Facebook, the prospect of a world where Facebook Lite is king is probably not a pretty one.
While it's far too early to predict what the real implications of Facebook Lite will be in practice for developers, this is yet a sharp reminder that their reliance on third party platforms means they don’t really have a stable business environment in which to operate. If Facebook Lite takes off and Facebook doesn't offer a way for third party apps to join the party, developers will undoubtedly lose out. To what extent is anyone’s guess at this stage.
For Facebook however, offering a lite version makes a lot of sense. Much of its growth has been international and in some countries, broadband access is still a luxury. With Lite, Facebook can offer users without access, a better overall experience.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Facebook has definitely become more complicated and 'bloated' so Facebook Lite will certainly come as a relief to some users. Successfully providing two distinct user experiences and keeping app developers and commercial partners happy at the same time could however prove to be much more of a tall order.
To be honest my excitement was short-lived anyway at the realisation that currently Lite (the spelling pains me, it really does) is only available to users in the United States and India although it is expected to be rolled out globally sooner than later.
Ho, hum, I guess my days of weeping into my laptop might not be over just yet.