Better term for “Favorites”

There's definitely no right answer to the 'best term' to use here. In terms of context, you're correct in that 'Favourites' or 'Bookmarks' don't really feel right.

An obvious solution would be 'Saved' or 'Saved for Later'. You could borrow from Twitter and Pinterest where you 'pin' items (the metaphor mightn't work, but certainly 'pin' evokes less emotion than 'favourite').

The other option would be to look at what Mail on Mac has been doing for years and use 'flagged' - this feels pretty good to me.

Essentially any generic term which makes it clear that the footage will stand out from the rest, without any emotion attached would work.

I'd keep it super simple and go for flagged, but it's all going to depend on your context. Save mightn't be so good as you're not technically 'saving' the footage, so flagged stands out for me.

Twitter allows you to temporarily "pin" a tweet at the top of your feed. This term, Pinning, appears to be exactly what you are looking for: a single item from a long list of items that you temporarily place at the top of the page. Pinning also invoked the feeling of something temporary: when you look at a pinboard, you can easily pin and unpin things you put on there as you need them.

As an added advantage, a pin is an easy icon to stylize and is quite recognizable.

Example of a Pinned Tweet:

I would suggest simply using an icon, most probably a "star". This is a widely accepted and recognised practice and simply suggests that a user is marking something out from the rest of the group in order to create prioritisation.

What about:

• prioritize / priority list
• inspect / inspection list
• investigate / investigation list
• observe / observation list (although one could probably argue all footage is already being observed)

My opinion is to use an icon, a star maybe or use something simple, not necessary a word, maybe a sentence or a group of words like "You chose:". You said this is just a section, so you don't need this in a menu, so it can be a title that can be a little more long.

You could name it watch list. It is kind of like eBay where there are millions of items, but there are only a few that you are interested in. You could have a small icon next to them with a star as in some suggestions, or a check mark. You can also have an option in the right click menu to add to watch list.

This is a matter of terminology indeed.

Here's a list of alternatives. Hopefully, one of them will correspond to your expectations:

• Traces (the criminal left some traces, right?)

• Captions

• Instants

• States

• Relevants (you turn it into a noun by inventing a plural form, why not?)

• Prints

• Selections

I think that

Add to watchlist.

Is a good option for that functionality.

Since your users will presumably be pinning certain camera feeds to the top of the list for specific reasons, there's an obvious semantic meaning here: Those feeds are more important than the others, at least for the moment. Because of the meaning here is obvious - and very different from "favorite", etc - I suggest simply calling them "Important Feeds". Or, if they're going to be changed frequently, something like "Currently Tracked Feeds". A straightforward phrase that communicates how the feature is actually being used.

By the way, this is neither here nor there, but rather than the star icon that others have suggested using, I'd suggest an exclamation point icon. That communicates the sense of "alertness" that is involved with reviewing security footage. And in an unusual color, like bright red or green, it won't be interpreted the same way as an exclamation point normally is in text.

Try not to find a word but to find a meaningful concept to your users.

The concept can be to hold on to a feed or to collect/gather a bunch of feeds because you need to review it later. Or to keep focus on certain feeds because they need extra attention. Maybe it's not always disturbing but you can call it at least notable or mentionable.

Learn about the user's mental model and you will have an answer that is more worth than any answer given here.