Facebook wants to know how you feel with Facebook

Facebook is asking users to choose an emoticon to express their moods when they update their statuses.Emotions such as being "happy", "tired" or "sad" appear in a drop-down menu for users to let their friends, and Facebook, know how they are feeling.

Users with access to the feature can also “tag” a status update with the respective Facebook page. Typing “watching Game of Thrones”, for example, gives the option to link to the Facebook page for the television series.

The tagging feature includes other everyday activities such as reading, eating and drinking and listening to music.

Facebook trialled the idea in January with a small group of American users. The company has apparently rolled it out to more users in the United States, according to TechCrunch.

The feature is likely to provide Facebook with more data about its users, which it can use to earn more revenue from targeted advertising.

The social network is looking for ways to earn more revenue per user after its disappointing IPO in May last year.

In December traffic to the website reportedly dipped by 1.86 per cent, prompting the suggestion that the social network has reached its saturation point in the UK. The site had 33 million visitors in December.

Approximately 31 million Britons are signed up to Facebook, which is just over half the UK population, according to SocialBakers. 59 per cent of all British internet users are registered. Facebook bars children under 13 from joining its service.

The company made $1.33bn (£869m) from advertising in the final three months of 2012. Its fourth quarter profit was $64m (£42m).

In January Facebook introduced Graph Search, a tool that allows users to search its database for “natural language” queries such as “friends who live in Manchester”. Previously users were only able to search for particular friends or pages by name.

British users will be able to pay up to £10 to send private messages to celebrities and notable public figures under plans revealed last week.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "In late January, we began testing a new, more visual way for people to share how they're feeling and what they're doing in a status update. Now, you can easily add your current mood, what you're listening to, reading, watching, eating, or drinking to your status update right from the new smiley face icon in the composer."