Facebook Lite - some good news, but lacking content for Fan Pages
Last week, Facebook unveiled their response to the sudden Twittermania sweeping the web: Facebook Lite. Currently available as a public preview in the United States and India, this stripped back version of their site is supposedly designed for users with slower Internet connections, but its competitive inspiration is very apparent.
Having spent a few days playing with the new version, impressions are mixed – some changes are actually huge improvements over the main site, while others are regressions or oversights that they will hopefully resolve when this rolls out. I wanted to go over a few of the most notable changes.
When you first log in to Facebook Lite, the most striking difference is how clean the home page appears. Facebook Lite has removed the lion's share of applications, and updates from friends and pages no longer compete for attention with numerous content panels. It looks very similar to Twitter's single-focus news feed.
One feature they tweaked was the “What's on your mind?” panel where members can post their status updates. Now, you have to select whether to write or post media, which is a step backwards for many – requiring multiple clicks to perform arguably the most common task on the site. Still, the Attach functionality is no longer in place – something I found to be a little cumbersome.
Profiles continue the notion of less is more. Again, without applications, the navigation is much leaner – now each profile is broken down into Wall, Info, Friends, and Photos & Videos. It took some time to realize that Friends also houses the list of pages the user is a fan of, previously listed under Info.
Overall, for a user, the site is much cleaner to use – stripping back anything that might be seen to slow, confuse or frustrate them.
However, what's good for the user isn't necessarily good for anyone wishing to promote their brand, products or services with Facebook. If you are not already a fan, finding a page is practically impossible with Facebook Lite. The fastest way is by browsing the items your friends are fans of, although it took a little exploration to even find that list.
It certainly makes sense to group pages with Friends in this way: however it is such a break from the current version of Facebook, that it won't be obvious to anyone.
Many organizations invest a lot of time and energy into their Facebook page as it is a great way to reach out to users on a site they already spend so much time on. Like MySpace for bands, Facebook offers a fantastic tool set to companies wishing to build their brand, promote their product, or build community without developing their own proprietary tools. Unfortunately, Facebook Lite pares pages down to the same minimal features as profiles.
In fact, it strips away a lot of features that many may take for granted – events (which, although you can view and create them as a regular user, appear to be completely absent from company pages now), customized tabs and widgets, selective landing pages, and many more. All that really remains are wall posts, photos and videos. Comparing any page side by site with its Lite counterpart highlights the difference this makes.
Without many of these features, page administrators have a very challenging set of restraints within which to create a compelling experience of their users.
One positive change to pages is the separation of the Wall and Fans. Separating posts made by the owners of the page and those made by its fans is a great distinction and makes it easier for a fan to see just the official updates.
As Facebook respond to feedback from this public preview, it will be interesting to see how Facebook Lite evolves.
Tia : I'm happy introduce Dale Price as a new community manager on the eModeration team, debuting here with an analysis of the new Facebook Lite. (Although I am slightly peeved that he's now managed to bag the ONE HUNDREDTH POST on the eModeration blog since we launched it back in January this year!) Congratulations to eModeration, and we hope you've found them of interest :-)
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