Facebook Lite: Half the Fat and Fewer Calories

Just days after acquiring FriendFeed for $50 million, Facebook has begun rolling out a new version of the service call Facebook Lite.

At first glance, it would appear to be a lighter version of Facebook. The beta tester message reads as follows:

We are building a faster, simpler version of Facebook that we call Facebook Lite. It’s not finished yet and we have plenty of kinks to work out, but we would love to get your feedback on what we have built so far.

Judging by the screenshot below, it definitely seems to look more like Twitter...

It may look like Twitter, but competing with the micro-blogging site is not the intent with Facebook Lite, according to the company.

Here's what Facebook has to say about it:

We are currently testing a simplified alternative to Facebook.com that loads a specific set of features quickly and efficiently. Similar to the Facebook experience you get on your mobile phones, Facebook “Lite” is a fast-loading, simplified version of Facebook that enables people to make comments, accept Friend requests, write on people’s Walls, and look at photos and Status updates. We are currently testing Facebook Lite in countries where we are seeing lots of new users coming to Facebook for the first time and are looking to start off with a more simple experience.

This evening, the test was temporarily exposed to a larger set of users by mistake. We have not opened up access to lite.facebook.com to all users at this time. People who are not part of the test and are trying to access “Lite” will be directed to Facebook.com as usual.

As it turns out, Facebook Lite is not really a means to compete with Twitter or FriendFeed, at least not initially.

Instead, it's meant to be used in parts of the world where broadband speeds vary and can be expensive. Given that the initial testing of the new service has taken place in India over the last few days, this seems to add up.

It will be interesting to see how this service evolves. We'll be watching.