New York - Online social network Facebook is "quietly working" on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users based on the personal information they provide about themselves on the site, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The company would let advertisers target Facebook users based on age, gender and location, as well as more personal information like favorite activities and preferred music, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

Ads would appear within a user's "news feed," the automatically generated list of updates on their friends' activities, as well as on Facebook pages that feature services from other companies.

The ad system is reportedly in the early stages of development, with a basic version slated to launch late this fall.

Facebook also eventually hopes to expand the service next year, "using algorithms to learn how receptive a person might be to an ad based on readily available information about activities and interests of not just a user but also his friends -- even if the user hasn't explicitly expressed interest in a given topic," the Journal reported.

The Facebook site attracted 30.6 million unique visitors in July, according to comScore.

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