Simplify Facebook, Twitter with Brizzly

Tired of Facebook's ad-heavy, overly cluttered interface? Brizzly strips away everything but the good stuff.

Remember way back Tuesday when I talked about Facebook Purity, the Greasemonkey script that strips away some of the clutter from your Facebook home page? Brizzly's even better: It provides a clean, simple, ad-free interface for Facebook. Twitter, too.

Getting started with this free Web service is a snap. Sign up for an account, then supply your username and password for Facebook and/or Twitter. You'll have to click through a couple "approval" pop-ups, which is normal for any outside service seeking access to your account.

Now you've got a simple front end for your Facebook news feed. You can update your status, "like" and comment on friends' posts, watched posted videos, write on walls, and so on. You don't get every single Facebook feature--you can't "hide" a friend or play any games--but you do get a refreshingly streamlined interface.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Remember way back Tuesday when I talked about Facebook Purity, the Greasemonkey script that strips away some of the clutter from your Facebook home page? Brizzly's even better: It provides a clean, simple, ad-free interface for Facebook. Twitter, too.

Getting started with this free Web service is a snap. Sign up for an account, then supply your username and password for Facebook and/or Twitter. You'll have to click through a couple "approval" pop-ups, which is normal for any outside service seeking access to your account.

Now you've got a simple front end for your Facebook news feed. You can update your status, "like" and comment on friends' posts, watched posted videos, write on walls, and so on. You don't get every single Facebook feature--you can't "hide" a friend or play any games--but you do get a refreshingly streamlined interface.

You can find out more about Brizzly (which is even more robust as a Twitter surrogate) in this video.

As someone who uses Facebook primarily for reading friends' feeds and posting the occasional status update, I'm seriously loving Brizzly.