Path, a service that launched recently as an iPhone app, is a social network that limits each person to a maximum of 50 friends. The idea is to create a connection with people who really are your friends and family, not the second-third-and-fourth-hand "friends" that people collect on Facebook. That means this service isn't for marketing or promoting yourself, it's for staying in touch with people with whom you have an actual relationship--the ones who might actually CARE that you're having a peanut butter sandwich or just saw Brad Pitt walking down the street.
The other distinctive thing about it is that for the time being it's visual only--you snap a picture with your iPhone and then send it instantly to your contacts. As an article at wired.com points out, "In practice, this constraint may spur a burst of creativity as people strive to depict the range of their emotions, social situations, frustrations, and celebrations solely through a series of captured images." Or it may just be a collection of shots of peanut butter and guys who sort of look like Brad Pitt...
