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It could make us more willing to express how we feel. Or you could say it over-simplies our complex moods and lives. But today the Facebook status update box began offering the option to “share how you’re feeling or what you’re doing” through a drop-down menu of emoticons and media. We’re entering a more structured era of communication, where both friends and big data know exactly how we tick.

Facebook began testing the new sharing options in January, but only released screenshots. Now it appears the feature has been given to a much wider audience. It’s likely the beginning of a global or at least US or English language rollout. I’ve contacted Facebook for details. Most mentions I’ve seen of the feature have been from the US, and many note the similarity to an old Myspace mood sharing option.

One of the best ways to plan for online success in the coming year is too look back at many of the algorithm changes that Google has made and the effects they will have on blogging in 2012. This year has seen well over 500 algorithm modifications, primarily coming from the Panda and Freshness updates. During this period of time, Matt Cutts and fellow Google folk did their best to help a lot of webmasters understand the implications of the various patches and updates that they have uploaded.

But quite frankly, many small internet marketers and niche websites got hit pretty badly. After Google’s Panda updates were first applied, many bloggers lost thousands of visitors per month and often dropped out of first page results that had netted them steady organic traffic. This is not something you want to be caught up in again, so make sure your blog is getting the time and effort it needs to boast user worthy content and see increased traffic from Google next year.