• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

‘Facebook Lite’ For Mobile Phones In Beta

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 15:11 CDT

Social networking site Facebook has started testing a new slimmed-down version of its service for mobile phone users and those with narrowband Internet connections.

Facebook Lite, which the company called a “faster, simpler version” of Facebook, is currently on trial with test audiences in India.  It is thought the new service will also be tested with users in China and Russia.

"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," said Facebook in a statement.

"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,” said Facebook, who says it has more than 250 million active users.

However, nearly three-quarters of those are in Europe and North America, where high-speed broadband Internet access is widely available.

But in developing nations with limited broadband network infrastructure, mobile phones are emerging as the dominant platform for Internet applications.   A slimmed-down version of Facebook that loads and runs effectively on a mobile device would facilitate Facebook’s expansion into these markets.

Earlier this week, Facebook announced it had acquired content-sharing service FriendFeed, which offers a "real-time" search engine that aggregates posts from different social networking sites. The move caught many by surprise, despite the fact the two companies had been in on and off for the past two years.

---

On the Net:

• Facebook

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category