As we announced this morning, Facebook is getting a Lite version to help ease the burden on those without good, cheap broadband.

However, why is this a good thing for the rest of us?

Facebook was getting fat.

The social networking site has been adding new features at an alarming rate over the past few years since it opened to the general public, and with all of the third-party features added to the eco-system, the site was beginning to bog down.

Optimising servers for 250 million people and their photos, friends lists, events, posts and settings is more than likely one of their main priorities at the moment, but in the past few months, it doesn't seem like they can keep up with their growth.
Numerous bouts of speed-problems and page errors have left a portion of users annoyed and frustrated.

So perhaps this new Lite version will not only be adopted by those visiting from slow, expensive connections, but by frustrated users on faster, cheaper ones.

As anyone who has visited a popular MySpace page will know, speed issues really are a problem when navigating around a site, and will often put people off from returning.

Facebook will assist more users to access the site, appease those who are on there and frustrated, and perhaps ease the burden on their own infrastructure with this new Lite version.

It's in beta, but with the pace of web development, hopefully we'll be able to use it soon.