Twitter CEO Confirms Test That Replaces ‘Favorite’ With ‘Like’ & ‘Star’

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has confirmed that the company is testing a change in its user interface that would replace the “heavyweight” Favorite button with “lightweight” options such as “Star” or “Like.”

According to V3.co.uk, Costolo told the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Engage conference yesterday that Twitter is thinking a change of terminology might increase engagement with the feature.

“We’re testing some alternative terms for favourite. Favourite feels a little bit too heavy weight so we’re testing some lighter weight terms. Engagement begets engagement. The lighter weight and more frictionless you make it to engage, the more engagement you’ll get.”

The Next Web first reported the test earlier this week, and pointed to a few tweets showing the changed buttons — like this one with a screenshot showing “Star” where “Favorite” normally is.

Like most online services, Twitter runs a number of tests at any given time and there’s no guarantee a test will ever see the light of day across the site (for all users).

If the word change does eventually go live, it could become another useful metric for brands and marketers as they attempt to measure engagement with Twitter users.

V3.co.uk also report that Costolo told the conference that Twitter is now hitting 500 million tweets per day. That’s up from the 400 million tweets per day that the company reported in June.