“We are currently testing a simplified alternative to Facebook.com that loads a specific set of features quickly and efficiently,” the internet star said in reply to an AFP inquiry.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Facebook Lite is being tested in India and other countries where new users flooding to the service “are looking to start off with a more simple experience”, according to the Palo Alto, California-based firm.<\/p>\n
A test website at lite.facebook.com was accidently opened to an expanded audience on Tuesday night, but the slip was caught and traffic routed to standard Facebook pages.<\/p>\n
Invitations to take part in a private test of “Facebook Lite” evidently reached a variety of US bloggers only to have the enclosed links vanish a short time later.<\/p>\n
“Lite” screen shots captured and posted online revealed a Facebook page devoted to fresh comments and updates from friends in a style that could challenge the real-time interplay at Twitter.<\/p>\n
Facebook announced on Monday that it has acquired FriendFeed, a Silicon Valley startup which allows members to see what their friends are doing online and share content.<\/p>\n
Facebook said that the 12 employees of the Mountain View, California-based FriendFeed will join Facebook and its four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.<\/p>\n
The acquisition of FriendFeed and testing of “Facebook Lite” follows social-networking star’s failed attempt last year to buy Twitter.<\/p>\n
FriendFeed has been described as a potential rival to Twitter in its ability to conduct real-time search, an area where Facebook has been seeking to expand.<\/p>\n
Facebook is the fastest growing social network on the Internet and has more than 250 million members.<\/p>\n