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It's Facebook, but not as you know it...

Late last night, the social networking big cheese made a couple of major changes to the way it operates. Firstly the site has launched Facebook Lite out of beta and secondly, introduced a Twitter copying @ mentions system for status updates.

Speaking about 'Facebook Lite' the site explained:

"We decided to roll out Facebook Lite in the U.S. to give users a simple, expedient alternative to facebook.com, and hope that it will fill this need. While the majority of our user base is outside the United States, we're always working to enhance the new user experience even in markets where facebook.com is easily accessible. We have also found that people who are new to Facebook tend to be most interested in a simpler experience, focus on establishing their network of friends and communicating with them by writing on their walls, sending messages, and looking at pictures. We have introduced the Lite site with these new users in mind."

In my (at times) humble opinion Facebook may have just cannibalised itself since I find the virtually Ad-less Facebook Lite a much cleaner, faster and more enjoyable layout than the full fat site. So it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

As for the @ mentions, this is a simple system which lets fellow Facebook users know when they are mentioned in status messages. Facebook gives the example of "coffee with @mer..." which creates a drop down menu of relevant Facebook friends so the published line reads "coffee with [profile hyperlinked] Meredith Chin..."

@ mentions are a huge part of what has made Twitter so popular, but arguably Facebook's autocomplete system makes it even easier to use. Combined with the Facebook Open API this really is game on Twitter...

Link:
Facebook Lite
@ Mentions via Facebook Blog

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