Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and the likes, are all social media sites that help people to connect with each other. It is evident that the globe is becoming smaller if one does get into these sites and use the networking applications that these sites run. The networking, in this case, does not refer to the connection of computers or similar devices to each other, but the human element that uses the device as such.

The devout followers of each networking site are huge and ever growing. The competition that exists between each site to draw new subscribers to it is, therefore, pretty widespread. The revenue earnings are too large for the originators or proprietors of these sites. It must be remembered that reach of these sites are free from registering and using every feature that the site has to offer.

It is these features that individual networking site has that distinguish one from the other. It is these features, also, that fan followings swear by and get addicted to. Maybe the same feature is being followed by the networking sites, but the name or term that is used by one site becomes the icon for that site.

Facebook, for example, uses the term “Like” to a particular feature in its site. Using this feature, a user of Facebook could indicate his or her appreciation for another fellow Facebooker’s post. There is no need to type any word or sentence by the one who wishes to appreciate the others posting. The number of likes, much like the number of hits that a website receives, measures how good or bad someone’s post was. The work “Like”, started by Facebook, soon turned into an iconic word. Even in daily lives, people have started using this term to indicate their measure of appreciation for another.

Twitter, which is one of the other competing social networking sites, has the feature termed “Favorite”. It does the same thing as “Like” on Facebook. There is, however, a change that has been noted recently on Twitter wherein the “Favorite” icon on many users page has been replaced by “Likes”. This seems to be a beta testing stage that Twitter is pacing through at the moment. It is clear that all its users are not getting a similar or changed option. It is probably Twitters way of surveying response from its followers or users about the change. Twitter, it seems, had also thought about using the term “Thanks”. They have also added the star feature to the changed “Like” feature. The start feature is what one gets to see in Google+ networking sites. It therefore appears to be a mix that Twitter is presently toying with.

There is the possibility that Twitter is planning a different advertising strategy with this change to Likes and Stars added to it. It is, after all, solely about money which is linked to how many users come to the network on these sites.

The fact that they are testing has been confirmed by the comment of Dick Costolo, CEO Twitter. Costolo said that they felt Favorites were a bit heavy, and were therefore trying out a lighter alternative. They feel it should be more engaging for the users’ is what he mentioned was the main motive behind the change of term.