“Personal network” startup Path lets users get emotional

Path, the social startup led by former Facebook executive Dave Morin, sounds both cool and a little mystifying. But as the service adds new features, like today’s addition of “emotions”, the company’s vision is becoming a little clearer.

San Francisco-based Path says that it wants to build “The Personal Network,” namely a way to share content with your closest connections, rather than the casual friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers you might be connected with on Facebook. Path started out by allowing photo-sharing on your iPhone, prompting comparisons to popular photo apps Instagram and Picplz, and it has since added video-sharing too.

With emotions, Path is offering a slightly more nuanced take on the “like” button popularized by Facebook (which is also used by Instagram and Picplz). These buttons allow you to comment on an item without having to think up a clever or heartfelt statement and without being limited by the single option of “liking”. What, for example, if someone posts something that’s kind of sad? Now you can show how a photo makes you feel, whether it’s happy, sad, surprised, amused, or if you’re just filled with love.

Path says, “Stay tuned – this is just the first in a series of features that will allow users to react to their friends’ moments.”

The company was co-founded by Morin, Napster creator Shawn Fanning, and Dustin Mierau. It has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, Betaworks, and a long list of all-star angel investors: Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Ashton Kutcher, Keith Rabois, Dustin Moskovitz, Marc Benioff, Gary Vaynerchuk, Steve Anderson, Tim Draper, Joi Ito, Fadi Ghandour, Matt Cohler, Sam Lessin, Bill Randuchel, Karl Jacob, Paul Buchheit, Ruchi Sanghvi, John Couch, Michael Parekh, Claudio Chiuchiarelli, Maurice Werdegar, Don Dodge, and Chris Kelly.