Facebook just introduced a new feature which absolutely no one asked for

Facebook is a superb tool for communication and reconnecting with people.

Yes it has its faults - the news feed can be difficult to manage or annoying, plus we don't really know what's happening with all our personal data, but we still flock to the social network and use it daily.

Its founder Mark Zuckerberg's goal is to connect everyone in the world, and regularly oversees updates to the gargantuan site in order to better achieve this. The latest one however, may annoy one or two people.

It would appear that the next update to your Facebook profile will include a glowing 'Active' label, informing people in your network that you are currently online and using the Facebook network.

Initially spotted by Mashable's Kerry Flynn, the new addition not only lets people know when you're online, it also reports how long you've been away in minutes. This is something of a throw back to the likes of MSN messenger and MySpace, who both informed your friends (and sometimes total strangers) if you were at your keyboard and having a browse.

Although this feature hasn't been rolled out to all profiles yet, I certainly didn't see it on any UK profiles, Mashable managed to replicate it on at least two profiles.

Facebook Chat of course has a similar feature, allowing you to see how long it's been since someone used the service, however, this can be fairly easily deactivated by setting yourself to offline and only conversing with people who you chose to talk to.

At present Mashable says that the feature is only available to people within your network, so total strangers wont be able to see often you're online,

It will be interesting to see when or if Facebook decide to roll out this feature to the wider site, and what the reaction will be.

More: 11 things you should delete from your Facebook immediatley