Faster Facebook logs in

The slick-and-speedy version of online socialising has arrived. Facebook Lite (lite.facebook.com) is a slimmed-down version of the old site, for people with slow-speed Internet. The trimmed look offers fewer services and is easier on the eyes, reports Nivriti Butalia.

The slick-and-speedy version of online socialising has arrived.

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Facebook Lite

(lite.facebook.com) is a slimmed-down version of the old site, for people with slow-speed Internet. The trimmed look offers fewer services and is easier on the eyes.

There are no applications or special boxes. And you cannot chat with all your 436 friends. Instead, there is more white space, the column on the right has less junk, and while there are still ‘People You May Know’, elements like ‘Highlights’, ‘Events’, and other pesky thumbnails have been left out.

Prashant Utthapa, a 33-year-old TV producer in Delhi, likes the new look. He says he switched over to it on Friday and found it “cleaner and easier to load on his smart phone”.

While the broadband janta out of habit and love for clutter may not switch to the minimalist look, the Lite version is possibly a blessing for users at Internet cafés in, say, Rohtak where pages could take days to upload. Brandee Barker, Facebook’s director of communications said, “Facebook Lite is designed to introduce people with low bandwidth.”