Path, a photo-sharing social network, rolled out its 2.0 update today. The latest version moves Path beyond its photo-sharing roots and places an emphasis on smart, social journaling. The social network lets you friend 150 people, up from the 50-person limit it allowed in earlier versions. The familiar options to share photos and videos are still available, but now Path lets you share your thoughts, the music you like, your location and the people you’re with. You can even tell everyone when you wake and when you go to sleep.
Path describes itself as a social network for personal, smart journaling. It limits your friends list, so you can have a close, personalized experience. You can freely share your thoughts and ideas that are too intimate for larger networks like Twitter or Facebook. The new Path app has a neat, clean interface, but there are a few bugs that diminish the overall experience. I used the iOS version and was unable to share a photo from my library. Hopefully, this and other minor glitches will be fixed in a quick update.
The bigger concern for Path is not bug fixes, but competition. Is there room for another social network? Will people cut back on Facebook and share their lives on Path, instead? Path seems to think there’s a need for a private social network. Only time will tell if the company’s instincts are correct. The new Path 2.0 app is available for Android and iOS. You can download it from the Android Market or the App Store now.