Facebook site, mobile app hit by slowdown

Facebook users today are complaining that the social network and its mobile app are running very slowly.

Users around the globe reported problem's with the site's performance, complaining of slow load times for the news feed and some pages on both connected and mobile devices.

Facebook did not respond to requests for information about the problem, or when it expects it to be corrected.

Frustrated with the speed -- or lack thereof -- of the site, users quickly took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.

"Facebook must be getting sick lol...because it's moving slow as hellllllll and the mobile app isn't really working!!," tweeted DaCav5.

Steviepeters tweeted, "Facebook has been slow/down since the IPO. Are they all too busy selling their shares and buying fancy things? I might be." While rockphotogirl tweeted, "I don't like Facebook today. It's not slow anymore but now when I try to Share something it's not showing what page I got it from. Grrr."

Reports hit yesterday that Facebook, which just last week filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering, is getting ready to launch advertising on its mobile apps by early March.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research, said a slow site isn't good news for Facebook with an IPO looming, though the ultimate effects of the performance woes depend on how long they lasts.

"It's only a problem if it lasts a long time, or recurs," said Gottheil. "One bad morning isn't going to hurt them."

Gottheil said he expects that Facebook will quickly get on top of the problem before headlines about it start piling up.

"Facebook is impressively engineered. They pay attention to performance," added Gottheil. "They'll either fix it or roll back the change that caused it."

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin , or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com .

Read more about web 2.0 and web apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.

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