If you’re a Twitterer, you’re probably very familiar with the favourite button on tweets. It’s Twitter’s equivalent to the Facebook ‘Like’ and a way to show appreciation to a good tweet, a weird tweet, a tweeted link or any tweet without replying or retweeting. It’s fun and it works. It also could have been known as ‘Thanks’.
According to All Things D, the familiar favourite button had trial runs as like, star and thanks. Thanks was actually the front runner in the early days of Twitter:
According to sources familiar with Twitter’s early thinking, the company was originally toying around with what to call the “favorite” button. Along with “favorite,” there were other popular options, such as those we’re seeing being tested now – “Like” and “star.”
But naming the button “thanks” was one of the most popular terms early on. A “favorite,” if you will, among the team responsible for the feature.
I think I like a favourite button more than a thanks button. [AllThingsD]