For a site with over 300 million users worldwide, Facebook has little customizing options and the users are pretty much stuck with what the site wants them to see. The social network is constantly tweaking and updating the design and the features, of course, but it wasn't until Facebook Lite came out that users had a real alternative to the site. The stripped-down version was launched roughly a month ago but only for users of the English version of the site. Finally though, Facebook Lite is now available in all 70
languages the social network currently supports.
Facebook Lite, as the name implies, is a lighter version of the site with just the most basic and important features and none of the excess fat. The trimming is pretty consistent, with just the News Feed and a couple of right-hand sidebar feature spared. Obviously the ads are there too. Surprisingly though, Facebook's wildly popular apps platform isn't supported in the slimmer version of the social networking site, at least not for the time being.
The Lite version was originally designed as an alternative for poorer countries where most users have slow connections. Facebook's regular version is becoming a little cluttered and heavy with content making for long loading times for those users. The solution was to remove everything but the core features and apps, which tend to be somewhat bloated, had to go as well. However, even before the site was launched many were asking Facebook to release it to all users and after the site was
launched a lot of people with fast connections started using it.
This led to a change of strategy for Facebook and Lite is now available for all users in all 70 languages including Pirate-speak and Upside Down English and the less useful ones like French or Spanish. Facebook Lite gives the social network a chance to see how many prefer it over the regular version but also to experiment with features that may end up in Facebook proper like the
new features it's testing now.
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