While the world waits to see if Facebook will indeed launch its rumored Gmail killer, an upstart is rolling out what could be called a Facebook killer — or at least a viable alternative to Facebook for folks who want to escape the constant spam and privacy concerns trumpeted in the media.
Facebook’s latest competitor is not a made-over MySpace or a yet-unseen Google Me. It’s an exclusivity-driven social network from the folks at Path. Path has crafted what it calls The Personal Network and it could turn some heads in a world where people are accepting friend requests on social networks from people who really aren’t personal friends.
Path’s founders envision The Personal Network as a place where members will feel comfortable being themselves and sharing the story of their lives with their closest friends and family via photos they take every day on mobile devices. The network is first launching on the iPhone App Store.
Sharing Life’s Moments
“The Personal Network doesn’t replace your existing social networks — it augments them,” said Dave Morin, cofounder of Path. “Path allows you to capture your life’s most personal moments and share them with the 50 close friends and family in your life who matter most. Because your personal network is limited to your 50 closest friends and family, you can always trust that you can post any moment, no matter how personal.”
Here’s how it works: Members take a photo using the iPhone or iPod touch and offer up a description of the content using tags. The tags let them describe people, places and things in the image. Only members of a personal network can see the photos.
“More privacy and control over who receives what communication is the idea behind the recently launched Facebook groups. But I also believe there is an opportunity…