What is the Path app and why is everyone drooling over it so much?

What is Path?

Path was launched in 2010 as a simple and private way to share life with close friends and family only, going back to the origins of why so many people loved social networking prior to it becoming mainstream – it used to feel like a small town with your closest friends, new or old. Path is an iPhone and Android app that, as demonstrated above, documents your lifestream. Competitors include Instagram, PicPlz, and at its core, Facebook and people are drooling over how beautiful the interface is, how fast and easy it is to use, and how private it is.

With the increasing popularity and noise of social networks, many are flocking to the quiet privacy of Path which can be a small, private network of you and your five best friends or just you and your family, with the added bonus that your Path “stories” can be shared on your social networks (Facebook, Tumblr, etc.) if you choose to make that specific video, photo, map or update public. Like Instagram, photo editing tools make your update look hip, a major draw of the app.

The company has some serious, well respected investors and founders and has been funded to the tune of $11.2 million – the company is so confident in its offering, that they turned down a $100 million offer from Google this February and there are rumors that Facebook is interested in buying the company.

“You’re going to be tempted, but don’t do it. Don’t add all your friends on Path,” writes tech blogger Josh Constine. “Don’t come anywhere near the 150-friend limit. And make the tough decision to reject the friend requests of people you care about. Because the whole point of Path 2 is sharing everything, and you won’t do that if you’re sharing to people that aren’t your best friends. Path’s power comes from the intimacy of your connections, not the quantity. This is difficult to adjust to because we’ve been conditioned by most social applications to connect with everyone we know. Path is different because it’s a micronetwork, not an interest network or general social network. It can but isn’t designed for sharing content that’s relevant to a wide audience, like the articles you publicly tweet, or the major life events you share with hundreds of Facebook friends.”