Facebook just announced via its Facebook profile that the ultra-lightweight version of its website, Facebook Lite, is no more.
The site, which many (including us) called yet another Twitter imitation, had only been live since last September but now redirects to the main Facebook homepage.
Facebook’s status update announcing the closure read as follows:
Thanks to everyone who tried out Facebook Lite. 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.
The pared-down version of the social network was meant to serve dial-up users and those in third-world countries with slower connections. Facebook did announce another stripped down version of itself called Facebook Zero last February at the Mobile World Congress, but going to this site from a browser simply gets the message “Sorry, your carrier does not support zero.facebook.com.”
We’ve asked Facebook if any other alternative will be available for slow-connection and dial-up users, but did not receive a response by press time.