It is not uncommon to receive a notification from a social networking site claiming that a 'friend' wants to add you to his or her friend list. As the use of these networks increase, the larger the amount of people who simply add others is rising as well. At times, there is not even a relationship established. What can be done in this frustrating moment aside from click the 'deny' button A new social network believes it has the answer!
Path, a San Francisco based site, is marketing its personal networking service to those who want to keep contacts to the minimum. It limits its number of friends to 50, so only the closest of friends will be able to share photos and ideas with each other. Path explains, "..personal relationships tend to expand in factors of roughly 3. So while we may have 5 people whom we consider to be our closest friends, and 20 whom we maintain regular contact with, 50 is roughly the outer boundary of our personal networks." The best part, no one is able to search a name and come across many listings. The only way to add anyone is by e-mail address or phone number. The frustration of weeding through friend requests will no longer be a problem.
Path also boasts that it provides more control to the user than other sites. People are not able to click on someone's profile and see everything about this person. How can this be Profiles are not created nor used! Each user has the ability to send photos to whomever he or she wants by using the I-phone or the web-based service. Although, there is one exception, Path detailed, "Aside from what is set forth in our privacy policy, you control what others see about you except if you are tagged in a photo." It is likely in this instance that each person was in this photo, so it should not create a privacy issue.
For some, control over what a website can send is crucial as well. Although basic notifications will always be sent, such as account notifications, the ability to block promotional e-mails is an option. Path specified that anyone can follow the instructions on the bottom of every e-mail to 'opt out' of receiving this mail.
