Are you wondering how can Facebook do that? Well its through your daily status updates.

Facebook now got a new and exciting stuff in there system. They can see how happy you are and over 200 Million people across the globe, using their system. A very exciting and innovative global use of your statuses.

We all use the facebook status update to share how we feel with the people that matters to use everyday. These updates are tiny windows to how we are doing in general because they are brief, to the point and descriptive of what’s going on with our life every week, every day and even right now.

When grouped together, these updates are indicative of how we are collectively feeling as stated by Adam D. I. Kramer, from facebook team. So, earlier this year; a data scientists at Facebook started the project to measure the overall mood of people from the United States on Facebook, based on the sentiment expressed in status updates.

The result was an index that measures how happy people on Facebook are from day-to-day by looking at the number of positive and negative words they’re using when updating their status. When people in their status updates use more positive words OR fewer negative words then that day as a whole is counted as happier than usual.

Examples of positive or happy words include "happy", "yay", and "awesome", while negative, or unhappy words, include "sad," "doubt" and "tragic." 

When you use these words, facebook count you as happy or unhappy depending on the ratio. A survey of some Facebook users showed that people who use more positive words relative to the number of negative words, reported higher satisfaction with their lives.

Over time, Facebook has seen spikes in the index for different days of the year. Some of the happiest days include U.S. national holidays like Thanksgiving and Fourth of July, social holidays like Halloween and religious holidays including Christmas and Easter. Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008 when the U.S. was celebrating the election of President Barack Obama was over twice as happy as the average Wednesdays.

“How happy will all of us be tomorrow, on our birthdays or during the World Cup? It depends on you and what you decide to share about how you’re feeling with your friends through your status updates.”

This was more than interesting for me, it shows how useful Facebook’s data can be. Really, Facebook’s data team have done really a great job. Well done!

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