Facebook pulls plug on 'Lite' project, surprising its users

The site made the announcement on Tuesday over its official fans’ page, claiming that it had learnt a lot from the test of the slimmed-down site.  “We’re no longer supporting it, but learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site.

If you used Lite, you’ll now be taken to the main Facebook.com site,” Facebook announced without elaborating anymore on the reasons for pulling the plug on the project.  Lite, the stripped-down version of its homepage and profile, was supposed to offer new users of Facebook a simpler experience, especially in countries where it was luring more first-time users.

Lite was also a reason why several disabled users had praised Facebook for being more accessible as they could use it through their special software. Lite’s sudden withdrawal seems to have surprised users who regularly logged-on to the page through the test version.

“I had been trying to open FB Lite and whenever I did that, I was directed to the main homepage,” said Surinder, a Facebook user.  “I thought it  was something to do with my old browser. It was much simpler to use. A feature I liked using,” he added.

Though it is hard to gauge the actual popularity of Facebook Lite, experts speculate that the version either did not catch up as expected or diverted too many users away from the revenue-generating features on its main page.

Facebook is known to have discarded unpopular and defective features, according to some experts, pointing at the Beacon advertising programme, which is expected to be turned into a Q and A feature soon.