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I didn’t really pay any attention to Path the first time around. An app that would let you send pictures to only a selection of friends seemed a bit too specific anyway.

Indeed Path didn’t really succeed. The developer’s countermeasure against this apathy is curious: just let them share more stuff besides pictures and drench this in a gorgeous UI.

Well, if you’re using the iPhone version that is. The Android version is a lot more basic (and problematic) while there is no iPad or Android tablet version to speak of. Never mind WinPho.

The premise works a lot better than expected though. Google+ already tried to solve the problem of having different ‘circles’ of friends, but Path seems to make it easier by default. Whatever goes on Path is for the happy few of your friends.

TechCrunch has a good write-up on how less friends means more sharing and I can’t help but agree with it. You’re more prone to share inane and useless, yet personality defining, information with your closest friends.

Which also highlights a deliberate omission from Path: links. Path only allows you to share music, locations, comments en pictures (as well as going to sleep and waking up), but there’s no exit to the rest of the glorious internet. Even the music needs to be iTunes Store compatible or it can curl up and die in the corner.

So is it nice? Well, I find myself using it more readily than Google+ (which is mostly a Google Reader extension to me), Twitter (which is a ‘happening now’ blog) and Facebook (ehr… yeah… something). Yet, at the same time it feels even less useful.

Both its greatest achievement and weakness is providing you with yet again a separate feed of information. It’s less immediate, but far more close-knit. Path is on to something, but it’s quite difficult to see where it’s headed.