The verb *favourite* or *favorite* (past tense *favourited* or *favorited*) is fairly new and isn't in many dictionaries. Two of the few are [Oxford Dictionaries Online](http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/favourite?view=uk), who define it as:

> **favourite**  
> *verb*  
> [*with object*]  
> record the address of (a website or other data) to enable quick access in future:
> *you can see who else favourited the same pictures*

And [Wiktionary][1]:

> **Verb**  
> **favorite** (*third-person singular simple present **favorites**, present participle **favoriting**, simple past and past participle **favorited***)  
> 1. Alternative form of favor.   
> 1. (Internet) To bookmark.  
> 1. (Internet) To add to one's list of favorites on a website that allows users to compile such lists.  

Some people dislike the verb as ugly, others say it's "an abomination of a non-word" and "emblematic of cultural necrosis & linguistic stupidity", but it's commonly used by Flickr, YouTube and Twitter (with [75m, 800m and 200m users][2] respectively) so it doesn't look like it's going to disappear any time soon. There's no entry (yet) at the Oxford English Dictionary, so when was this internet usage first used? Who popularised it and when?

---

My research:

I suspect it could have been first popularised by Flickr (launched 2004), then later boosted by YouTube (2005) and more recently Twitter (2006).

*Favorites* were announced by the Flickr photography website in a [August 2004](http://blog.flickr.net/en/2004/08/27/news-2004-8-27/) post, but they it only used the word as a noun. The first use I found as a verb on the Flickr blog is [September 2005](http://blog.flickr.net/en/2005/09/26/doing-things-with-flickr/):

> In other news, Flickr user fd has a new addition to his fantastic collection of Flickr toys— his random photo browser [...] fetches a selection of random photos that **have been favorited** by at least one person. 

I found a verb use by Eric, a Flickr staff member, in [December 2004](http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/3334/16070/):

> But there are still a couple of bugs at play here: This photo should not appear in GustavoG's favorites, because he does not have permission to view it any more (it being totally private, and Gustavo not being a member of the fotolog group). I am guessing that **he favorited it** before it was made private. We will fix this.

(Interestingly, in the the bug report he replied to, GustavoG used the verb *favored* rather than *favorited*: "This was most definitely not a private page when **I favored it**.")

---

Edit: Stack Exchange also uses the verb *favorite*, and has done since at least [2010][3]. If you click the star on this question then I may getf the [Favorite Question badge](https://english.stackexchange.com/badges/38/favorite-question) for a "Question **favorited** by 25 users." (Or even the [Stellar Question badge](https://english.stackexchange.com/badges/51/stellar-question) for a "Question **favorited** by 100 users.")


  [1]: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/favorite#Verb
  [2]: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-people-use-the-top-social-media/
  [3]: http://wayback.archive.org/web/20100102050832/http://stackoverflow.com/badges