While MySpace and Bebo have been signing high-profile deals with mobile operators (Vodafone and Orange, respectively), rival social networking site Facebook has quietly launched its own WAP site that’s accessible to users of every operator.
You access it by pointing your mobile browser to m.facebook.com and it’s pretty damn impressive. It automatically signs you in after your first visit, and serves up a front page with your news feed of what friends have been up to, status updates (including a box to tap in what you’re doing right now), plus links to your friends’ photos, notes, and your groups and events, and a search box.
What’s great about the site is the way it focuses on the key bits of information and content that you might want to access on the go – you can tell someone’s thought hard about how and why someone might use Facebook on their phone. It loads up quickly, and works seamlessly.
What’s missing, though, is the capture aspect - being able to upload photos from your phone – although Facebook has a separate Mobile Uploads service to handle that, which involves sending photos to your account in MMS messages.
Nevertheless, Facebook Mobile is a great start, and one that everyone can use right now, rather than having to wait until your operator has signed a deal with the social network. If you’re into Facebook – and it’s picking up a helluva lot of steam at the moment – this should be a bookmark on your phone.
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