Ever find yourself cursing Facebook as you stumble across a friend’s page that’s complete with 28 applications, 13 upcoming events, some stupid thing about Mafia Wars and a laundry-list of responses to a mindless status update? Chances are you do. On the reg.

So for you, and me, and whoever else wishes Facebook would stop excessively adding applications like an Italian adds toppings to a pizza, there’s the newly launched preview for Facebook Lite, accessible now by logging in at www.lite.facebook.com.

The Lite version boasts a simpler, cleaner design, reminscient of Facebook’s early design stages. It’s main premise is that it’s much faster loading and thus a better option for those browsing Facebook from computers with slower internet connections. As of now, Facebook Lite is only available to those in the US and India.

Some people are already viewing the revamping as an effort on Facebook’s part to be a bit more like Twitter, focusing on real-time updates and messaging. Along the same lines, Facebook has also recently announced they will be supporting @mentions in status updates, which they dub ‘tagging’, enabling users to references friends, groups and events directly.

Facebook Lite has a simpler top toolbar, one-click buttons for status updates and media uploads, and eradicates most of the “bells and whistles” you previously felt bogged down by on your profile. The most noticeable change is the drastic decrease in third-party applications. You get the wall, info, friends, photos and media.

And that’s it. Touche.

Anderson Analytics has an online quiz about social networking users.  Answering a few questions about your social media usage pops out a categorization showing what kind of social media user you fall into.

Turns out I’m a Social Media Maven.  There are 27 Million of me, my average age is 27, and my average income is $71,000.  Yeah, all of those are pretty far off.  I guess I’m a fairly mature social media user, though.

That’s right, I’m mature!  I am so much better than you.  Take the quiz and see what category you fall into.

Bo here-I went to SEABA (South End Arts + Business Association) to check out the cool happenings in social media today led by local top media gurus and to drink beer.

The speakers presented their insights about blogging, video production, twitter, and social media integration. Most of the people that attended were novices at using social media to increase their business. This workshop perhaps was very helpful to them. Twenty minutes to hear each speaker was great for an introduction, but for someone like me I would need a couple hours of in-depth analysis to reach all my goals in life.

There was also a silent auction on “Top Flight” Flamingos (if you didn’t go you missed out big time!! ).

http://www.facebook.com/arthop

Here are a few things I took away from the event:

• If you want to be successful in social media you need to have concrete numerical goals for your company, and use your resources to accomplish them.
• When using twitter, use the 15/1 ratio. Tweet 15x more about other people than you tweet about yourself.
• Use videos in your blog to talk about your product because videos rock!
• Updating your blog with cool icons and pictures makes your blog popular which will lead to more visits.

So get on board with this social media stuff. Learn it all (it’s the future man!)