Quote Originally Posted by it-ogo View Post
Yes, such smileys are popular lately.
If by "lately" you mean years then yes.

These are indeed smiles - we are often too lazy to add eyes and noses. The more brackets are there the wider the smile is (or sometimes it's laughter). Same goes for "(" and "(((" (sad and extremely sad).

They are very common, I often have to put a conscious effort to use "standard" smiles while I'm on English-speaking forums. When I found out for the first time that people from other countries did not understand what those brackets meant I was surprised. )))