Hot or Not is a website that allows users to rate each other's attractiveness.
It was founded in October, 2000, by two Silicon-Valey based engineers named James Hong and Jim Young. The site was originally called Am I Hot or Not, and it became very popular. The site allowed people to sumbit their pictures, and vistors would rate them on a scale of one to ten: ten being hot, one being not.
Within a week of launching, the site had reached the level of serving almost 2 million page views per day. Within a few months, website even penetrated the Net Nielsen Rating's Top 25 advertising domains, falling right behind CNet and NBCi.
In order to keep up with rising costs, Hong and Woung added a matchmaking component to their website called "Meet Me at Hot or Not".
Later the website's domain name was changed to hotornot.com, which was considered a poor marketing move by many given the enormous name recognition of amihotornot.com. Despite the change, the site remains very popular.
The site has spawned many imitators including:
