What is the grammatical meaning of ")"?

Question

thanks in advance for your answers!I have come across ")" in many Russian written conversations, for example:<<Вид из окна на кухне)>>or<<Посмотри лучше это)>>I have even seen "))" or ")))" in forums.Is this the equivalent of an exclamation mark in English? When is it appropriate to use this symbol?

Answer 1

Whoever wrote this smiled and wanted to point it out.

Answer 2

It’s a smiley face in the Russian-speaking segment of the web. Russians use smiley without a colon “)”, “)))”, first, because it’s shorter and faster and, second, because they want to show a text or message receiver their friendliness, politeness  or to inform that it’s something they really like. The information, which a smiley face follows after, doesn’t necessarily mean anything funny.

Answer 3

This is not Russian language, this is web language. Most probably those are smiles :-)))