ViralWorld

Hot or Not

You might remember it as HOTorNOT, rate my photo site

The archive has not found a surviving copy.

2000·Early web, before YouTube

The site that taught the web to rate strangers out of ten, and set the shape of everything since.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
HOTorNOT
Spread in
2000
Began as
A web page
Era
Early web, before YouTube
Made by
James Hong and Jim Young, two engineers
Original title
Am I Hot or Not
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

What this wasThe story

Two Berkeley engineers put up a page in October 2000 where you submitted a photograph and strangers scored it from one to ten. Within a week it was serving nearly two million page views a day. YouTube's founders have said they set out to build a version of it for video before the idea widened, and the swipe every dating app uses descends from the same binary.

Why it matteredWhat changed

A site made to settle one argument was showing two million pages a day within a week. The founders of YouTube said they first set out to make a video version of it.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The site is launched, after its founders disagree about whether a passing woman is attractive.1

  2. Mainstream

    YouTube’s founders tell Time magazine that a video Hot or Not was their first idea.1

  3. Later

    The site is sold, reportedly for twenty million dollars.1

  4. Later

    It is bought by Badoo.1

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

This began as a web page, not as a video.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a web page, not as a video.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Hot or Not

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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