Thoughts on Path
The new Path is really pretty.
Actually, the old Path was really pretty too, but it never had a chance. It had a weird reverse-friending model that no one understood and an arbitrary low limit of 50 friends. It had no real leg-up over existing services like Instagram or Twitter, and was often next in the joke-butts line, after the disastrous Color.
So what makes the new version so buzz-worthy?
Pretty simple, really: they fixed those two big problems. They raised the friend limit to be closer to the Dunbar Number, and made the friendship model simple: Accept or Ignore. They also went a step further and integrated existing popular services, so you can cross post to Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, and Tumblr – albeit somewhat hidden.
What they’ve created is essentially a mix of Foursquare, With (another Path product), Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, with a dash of video. They’re marketing it as a “Smart Journal” but it’s undeniably a new take on the idea of what a social network should be.
Ignoring, for now, the somewhat sketchy business model of social networks, I have to admit that I really like Path. Aggregating everything good about other apps into one single, beautiful, cohesive experience is very appealing.
As a social network, Path can only succeed if my friends feel the same way and continue to use it. There’s also plenty of opportunity for Path to screw things up with privacy blunders, downtime, data loss, or any number of other things web services have to deal with. It seems to have passed the test of being cool enough to have friends try it out, but the test of time is really what matters.
It will be interesting to see how close I get to the 150 friend limit. It may end up being a great excuse to not have to add your crazy aunt Marge or creepy boss. Then again, maybe I’ll just end up feeling bad about witholding from them.
The “X has visited your path” notifications are interesting too. One of the reasons I dislike Facebook so much is because of the bi-directional, passive-observer role that most users play: I can look at the photos from your trip to Vegas, but you don’t know that. You can read all the links I post, but I’m never informed. It’s like we’re secretly good friends to each other without realizing it. Alternatively, you could be the creepy person who looks at every single one of my photos, all my wall posts, and checks my profile daily, but I hardly know who you are – just that we met once at a party. This passive-ness kind of freaks me out.
When I open Path and I get a notification that “X visited my path,” I feel good about it, and know that someone cares enough about me to want to see what I’ve been up to. The obvious counterpoint is that this is much too invasive, even for friends. I haven’t yet figured out which side of this argument I want to be on, but it’s fun to think about. I ask in earnest: What’s wrong with telling your friends you’ve wanted to check in on them? Are we just not used to telling people we care about each other?
So yeah, I like Path. I don’t know if I’ll keep using it, but I commend them on trying something new and something different. Oh, and making it totally gorgeous.
