HAHAHA......Myspace.... The last time I saw Myspace was on failblog.org. After fighting it out with Facebook for members, Myspace decided to forfeit the losing battle at the end of last year. Mike Jones, the CEO of Myspace stated, "MySpace is a not a social network anymore. It is now a social entertainment destination.” Now Myspace targets a niche market for musicians to share their talent, or lack thereof.
Recently I stumbled upon a new social networking site called "Path", which has a unique take on social networking. Instead of trying to take Facebook head on, Path aims to create personal networks. Whereas Facebook allows you to have hundreds or even thousands of meaningless "friends", Path will limit you to 150 friends. This will force you to only choose your closest family/friends. The whole concept is based on the research by Professor Robin Dunbar at Oxford University, which found that people tend to have 5 best friends, 15 good friends and 50 close family and friends, and 150 friends. The second biggest difference is that Path only allows you to share Photos with tags. The reason for limiting communication to pictures is so that the only way to know what your friends are doing is to see them do it. In this way, the moment is captured and shared among friends, instead of having a text status update or tweet. For a quick overview, watch this video.
I think this is an interesting concept. One advantage I can see is that people will be less afraid to express themselves more freely, knowing that only their closest friends can see their photos. Then again, you could just create another Facebook account for your close family and friends. Another advantage that Facebook will still have is the ability to reconnect old childhood friends and classmates, and to keep them in your contact list in case you want to talk to them again. That being said, Path does not aim to replace social networks, but to "augment" them.
What's your opinion on Path? Will you ever use it? Do you think it will take off?
