Ever heard of Path? Here's its official site: https://path.com/
If you haven't heard of it, it's basically just Facebook (it was even founded by a former Facebook employee), only it limits you to 150 connections/friends, no doubt inspired by Dunbar's number.
This is a good article describing the company and its app:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/path-social-network-path-improve/story?id=15975472#.UJ2Ni-RlFAJ
Although you can go up to 150 friends, the article mentions that most Path users have only five or ten.
I remain mystified that this app exists at all. I've heard that venture capitalists often squelch techies' pitches by saying, "That's really more of a feature than an app." Well, never was that more true than here.
The article mentions that CEOs, for instance, love Path, because it allows them to share photos with their most immediate friends and families, without having to expose their tastes and activities to a broader public -- as they would, if they were to post the same photos to their Facebook accounts.
Now, this is exactly why Google made its "circles" in Google+. And maybe one day, Facebook will finally get on the ball with this as well. The day it does is the day when Path becomes irrelevant -- or, rather, the day when people realize Path was irrelevant all along.
In the meantime, I wonder why these publicity-shy CEOs don't just make themselves a second, "secret" account on Facebook or Google+, and use it to friend only a few people. Again: no one needs Path, its whole value-proposition (to the user) is already covered by existing apps.
I'm guessing the only reason Path has gotten traction is because it has simply managed to give itself trendy cachet somehow (which is admittedly an impressive feat in and of itself).
If you use Path and like it, I'd love to hear your reasons why. I don't have an account myself, so maybe there's something I don't know about it. Prove this blog post wrong! :)
If you haven't heard of it, it's basically just Facebook (it was even founded by a former Facebook employee), only it limits you to 150 connections/friends, no doubt inspired by Dunbar's number.
This is a good article describing the company and its app:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/path-social-network-path-improve/story?id=15975472#.UJ2Ni-RlFAJ
Although you can go up to 150 friends, the article mentions that most Path users have only five or ten.
I remain mystified that this app exists at all. I've heard that venture capitalists often squelch techies' pitches by saying, "That's really more of a feature than an app." Well, never was that more true than here.
The article mentions that CEOs, for instance, love Path, because it allows them to share photos with their most immediate friends and families, without having to expose their tastes and activities to a broader public -- as they would, if they were to post the same photos to their Facebook accounts.
Now, this is exactly why Google made its "circles" in Google+. And maybe one day, Facebook will finally get on the ball with this as well. The day it does is the day when Path becomes irrelevant -- or, rather, the day when people realize Path was irrelevant all along.
In the meantime, I wonder why these publicity-shy CEOs don't just make themselves a second, "secret" account on Facebook or Google+, and use it to friend only a few people. Again: no one needs Path, its whole value-proposition (to the user) is already covered by existing apps.
I'm guessing the only reason Path has gotten traction is because it has simply managed to give itself trendy cachet somehow (which is admittedly an impressive feat in and of itself).
If you use Path and like it, I'd love to hear your reasons why. I don't have an account myself, so maybe there's something I don't know about it. Prove this blog post wrong! :)
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