Hot or Not
Encyclopedia
Hot or Not is a rating site that allows users to rate the attractiveness of photos submitted voluntarily by others. The site also offers a match making engine called 'Meet Me' and an extended profile feature called 'HOTLISTS'. It is owned by Avid Life Media.
-based engineers. Both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley
in electrical engineering, with Young pursuing a Ph.D at the time.
The site was a technical solution to a disagreement they made one day over a passing woman's attractiveness. The site was originally called "Am I Hot or Not". Within a week of launching, it had reached almost two million page views per day. Within a few months, the site was immediately behind CNET
and NBCi
on NetNielsen Rating's Top 25 advertising domains. To keep up with rising costs Hong and Young added a matchmaking
component to their website called "Meet Me at Hot or Not", i.e. a system of range voting
. The matchmaking service has been especially successful and the site continues to generate most of its revenue through subscriptions. In the December 2006 issue of Time Magazine, the founders of YouTube
stated that they originally set out to make a version of Hot or Not with Video before developing their more inclusive site. Mark Zuckerberg
of Facebook
similarly got his start by creating a Hot or Not type site called FaceMash, where he posted photos from Harvard
's Facebook for the university's community to rate.
Hot or Not was sold for a rumored $20 million on February 8, 2008 to Avid Life Media, owners of Ashley Madison
. Annual revenue was estimated at $5 million, with net profits of $2 million. They initially started off $60,000 in debt due to tuition fees James paid for his MBA. On July 31, 2008, Hot or Not launched Hot or Not Gossip and a celebrity rate box (a "hot meter") - a sub division to expand their market which is run by former radio DJ, turned celebrity blogger, Zack Taylor
.
of its predecessors, Hot or Not quickly became the most popular. Trademark threats from AmIHot.com eventually forced AmIHotOrNot.com to change its name to HotOrNot.com in 2001 and buy AmIHot.com in 2004. Since AmIHotOrNot.com's launch, the concept has spawned many imitators. The concept always remained the same, but the subject matter varied greatly. The concept has also been integrated with a wide variety of dating and matchmaking systems. In 2007 BecauseImHot.com launched and deleted anyone with a rating below 7 after a voting audit or the first 50 votes (whichever is first).
Variations on the Hot or Not concept include voting via a Condorcet method
where a candidate is compared with other candidates in a series of pairwise comparisons in order to gauge their popularity. MyTypeOfGirl.com uses a 4 way comparison of candidates to gauge their popularity and show a 'type' match for candidates who most closely match the average preferences shown by the user making the choices.
A website based on the opposite idea of the Hot or Not concept was introduced in the spring of 2011, with the creation of CreepOrCreep.com a site where voting was not based on attractiveness but on creepiness.
Hot or Not was the inspiration behind Mark Zuckerberg's Facemash, a rating site where Harvard students were compared with one another based on attractiveness. Shortly after Facemash, Mark Zuckerburg went on to create Facebook
. Facemasher.com is a recreation of the original site.
, cousin of Charles Darwin
, devised a technique called composite photography, described in detail in Inquiries in Human Faculty and its Development, which he believed could be used to identify 'types' by appearance, which he hoped would aid medical diagnosis, and even criminology through the identification of typical criminal faces. In short, he wondered if certain groups of people had certain facial characteristics. To find this answer, he created photographic composite images of the faces of vegetarians and criminals to see if there was a typical facial appearance for each. Galton overlaid multiple images of faces onto a single photographic plate so that each individual face contributed roughly equally to a final composite face. While the resultant “averaged” faces did little to allow the a priori identification of either criminals or vegetarians, Galton observed that the composite image was more attractive than the component faces. Similar observations were made in 1886 by Stoddard
, who created composite faces of members of the National Academy of Sciences
and graduating seniors of Smith College
. This phenomenon is now known as averageness
-effect, that is the highly physically attractive tend to be indicative of the average traits of the population.
In 2005, as an example of using image morphing methods to study the effects of averageness, imaging researcher Pierre Tourigny created a composite of about 30 faces to find out the current standard of good looks on the Internet (as shown above). On the Hot or Not web site, people rate others’ attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. An average score based on hundreds or even thousands of individual ratings takes only a few days to emerge. To make this hot or not palette of morphed images, photos from the site were sorted by rank and used SquirlzMorph to create multi-morph composites from them. Unlike projects like Face of Tomorrow where the subjects are posed for the purpose, the portraits are blurry because the source images are low resolution with differences in posture, hair styles, glasses, etc., so that here images could use only 36 control points for the morphs. A similar study was done with Miss Universe
contestants, as shown in the averageness
article, as well as one for age, as shown in youthfulness article.
A recent 2006 "hot" or "not" style study, involving 264 women and 18 men, at the Washington University School of Medicine
, as published online in the journal Brain Research, indicates that a person's brain determines whether an image is erotic long before the viewer is even aware they are seeing the picture. Moreover, according to these researchers, one of the basic functions of the brain is to classify images into a hot or not type categorization. The study's researchers also discovered that sexy shots induce a uniquely powerful reaction in the brain, equal in effect for both men and women, and that erotic images produced a strong reaction in the hypothalamus
.
Description
Photos are approved by a panel of volunteer moderators, who strive to keep the site "fun, clean, and real". However, in recent times there have been changes to the moderating system, see below.History
The site was founded in October 2000 by James Hong and Jim Young, two friends and Silicon ValleySilicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
-based engineers. Both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in electrical engineering, with Young pursuing a Ph.D at the time.
The site was a technical solution to a disagreement they made one day over a passing woman's attractiveness. The site was originally called "Am I Hot or Not". Within a week of launching, it had reached almost two million page views per day. Within a few months, the site was immediately behind CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
and NBCi
NBCI
NBCI may refer to:*National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the detective branch of the Irish Garda *North Branch Correctional Institution, a prison in Maryland, USA...
on NetNielsen Rating's Top 25 advertising domains. To keep up with rising costs Hong and Young added a matchmaking
Matchmaking
Matchmaking is any process of matching two people for the purpose of marriage or a sporting contest.-Practice:In some cultures, the role of the matchmaker was and is quite professionalized...
component to their website called "Meet Me at Hot or Not", i.e. a system of range voting
Range voting
Range voting is a voting system for one-seat elections under which voters score each candidate, the scores are added up, and the candidate with the highest score wins.A form of range voting was apparently used in...
. The matchmaking service has been especially successful and the site continues to generate most of its revenue through subscriptions. In the December 2006 issue of Time Magazine, the founders of YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
stated that they originally set out to make a version of Hot or Not with Video before developing their more inclusive site. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive and president...
of Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
similarly got his start by creating a Hot or Not type site called FaceMash, where he posted photos from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's Facebook for the university's community to rate.
Hot or Not was sold for a rumored $20 million on February 8, 2008 to Avid Life Media, owners of Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison is an online dating service and social network service marketed primarily to people who are already in a relationship. The website was launched in 2001....
. Annual revenue was estimated at $5 million, with net profits of $2 million. They initially started off $60,000 in debt due to tuition fees James paid for his MBA. On July 31, 2008, Hot or Not launched Hot or Not Gossip and a celebrity rate box (a "hot meter") - a sub division to expand their market which is run by former radio DJ, turned celebrity blogger, Zack Taylor
Zack Taylor (celebrity blogger)
Zack Taylor is a former radio disc jockey working for Y100 FM in Miami and then he hosted the Midday show on Mix 100 FM in Yellowknife . He later turned into a celebrity blogger after creating Canadian celebrity gossip site ZACKTAYLOR.CA back in August 2007...
.
Predecessors and spin-offs
Hot or Not was preceded by the rating sites RateMyFace, which was launched a year earlier in the summer of 1999, and AmIHot.com, which was launched in January 2000 by MIT freshman Daniel Roy. Despite the head startsHead start (positioning)
In positioning, a head start is a start in advance of the starting position of others in competition, or simply toward the finish line or desired outcome...
of its predecessors, Hot or Not quickly became the most popular. Trademark threats from AmIHot.com eventually forced AmIHotOrNot.com to change its name to HotOrNot.com in 2001 and buy AmIHot.com in 2004. Since AmIHotOrNot.com's launch, the concept has spawned many imitators. The concept always remained the same, but the subject matter varied greatly. The concept has also been integrated with a wide variety of dating and matchmaking systems. In 2007 BecauseImHot.com launched and deleted anyone with a rating below 7 after a voting audit or the first 50 votes (whichever is first).
Variations on the Hot or Not concept include voting via a Condorcet method
Condorcet method
A Condorcet method is any single-winner election method that meets the Condorcet criterion, which means the method always selects the Condorcet winner if such a candidate exists. The Condorcet winner is the candidate who would beat each of the other candidates in a run-off election.In modern...
where a candidate is compared with other candidates in a series of pairwise comparisons in order to gauge their popularity. MyTypeOfGirl.com uses a 4 way comparison of candidates to gauge their popularity and show a 'type' match for candidates who most closely match the average preferences shown by the user making the choices.
A website based on the opposite idea of the Hot or Not concept was introduced in the spring of 2011, with the creation of CreepOrCreep.com a site where voting was not based on attractiveness but on creepiness.
Hot or Not was the inspiration behind Mark Zuckerberg's Facemash, a rating site where Harvard students were compared with one another based on attractiveness. Shortly after Facemash, Mark Zuckerburg went on to create Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
. Facemasher.com is a recreation of the original site.
Research
In 1883, Francis GaltonFrancis Galton
Sir Francis Galton /ˈfrɑːnsɪs ˈgɔːltn̩/ FRS , cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton, half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician...
, cousin of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, devised a technique called composite photography, described in detail in Inquiries in Human Faculty and its Development, which he believed could be used to identify 'types' by appearance, which he hoped would aid medical diagnosis, and even criminology through the identification of typical criminal faces. In short, he wondered if certain groups of people had certain facial characteristics. To find this answer, he created photographic composite images of the faces of vegetarians and criminals to see if there was a typical facial appearance for each. Galton overlaid multiple images of faces onto a single photographic plate so that each individual face contributed roughly equally to a final composite face. While the resultant “averaged” faces did little to allow the a priori identification of either criminals or vegetarians, Galton observed that the composite image was more attractive than the component faces. Similar observations were made in 1886 by Stoddard
Stoddard
-People:*Bob Stoddard, major league baseball pitcher*Charles Warren Stoddard, American author*Elizabeth Drew Stoddard, American poet and novelist*Howard J. Stoddard, American banker*James Stoddard , American fantasy author...
, who created composite faces of members of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
and graduating seniors of Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
. This phenomenon is now known as averageness
Averageness
In attractiveness studies, averageness is one of the characteristics of physical beauty in which the average phenotype, i.e. outward appearance, of the individual theoretically characterizes averaged genotypes, thus indicating health and fertility. The majority of averageness studies and theories...
-effect, that is the highly physically attractive tend to be indicative of the average traits of the population.
Miss Universe
Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The pageant is the most publicized beauty contest in the world with 600 million viewers....
contestants, as shown in the averageness
Averageness
In attractiveness studies, averageness is one of the characteristics of physical beauty in which the average phenotype, i.e. outward appearance, of the individual theoretically characterizes averaged genotypes, thus indicating health and fertility. The majority of averageness studies and theories...
article, as well as one for age, as shown in youthfulness article.
A recent 2006 "hot" or "not" style study, involving 264 women and 18 men, at the Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine , located in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the graduate schools of Washington University in St. Louis. One of the top medical schools in the United States, it is currently ranked 4th for research according to U.S. News and World Report and has been listed...
, as published online in the journal Brain Research, indicates that a person's brain determines whether an image is erotic long before the viewer is even aware they are seeing the picture. Moreover, according to these researchers, one of the basic functions of the brain is to classify images into a hot or not type categorization. The study's researchers also discovered that sexy shots induce a uniquely powerful reaction in the brain, equal in effect for both men and women, and that erotic images produced a strong reaction in the hypothalamus
Hypothalamus
The Hypothalamus is a portion of the brain that contains a number of small nuclei with a variety of functions...
.