Social networking giant Facebook has invited some of its members to test a new version of the site that is designed for users in countries with low-speed internet access.
But the site actually invited more users than it intended to test the “Facebook Lite”, with tech blogs releasing screenshots and information about the new service.
Shortly after the mistake, Facebook released a statement in which it confirmed the new site’s existence, as well as the fact it is targetting low-speed internet users.
“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.”
“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.”
Facebook also admitted that it released the test site invitation to “a larger set of users by mistake”, and reminded other users that they cannot access the “Lite” portion of the site unless their account has been authorised to do so.
The “Facebook Lite” page looks similar to the normal Facebook home page, but removes graphics and images that could take longer to load under a low-speed connection.
But what has set the blogosphere alight is the resemblance the new site has to Twitter. “Status Updates” now appear on top of each other in small posts, extremely similar to how they appear on the Twitter home page.
The move has led some to speculate that Facebook is trying to catch up with Twitter’s reach in the social media world. The launch of “Lite” also comes just days after Facebook released a service that allows users to search through users’ status updates, similar to the real-time search capabilities on Twitter.
It also comes after Facebook acquired social networking application developer FriendFeed this week, which operates an app that allows users to update several social networking profiles at once.
No details have been given on when or if the Facebook Lite version will be released to all of the site’s users.
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Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
