Facebook shuts down Lite

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook has shut down Facebook Lite, the stripped-down version of the

social network's profiles and home page.

Launched in September 2009, Facebook Lite was regarded as an option for people with slow internet connections.

On Tuesday, Facebook confirmed on its official "fan page" that it's ending the Facebook Lite project. "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," read the announcement. No further explanation has been given on the site’s closure.

While Facebook Lite allowed users to build a list of friends, write on Walls, send messages and post and share photos and videos, it excluded the site's popular over 500,000 applications built by outside developers.

Industry observers believed that Facebook launched the barebone site to attract the users of the popular microblogging site Twitter.