Want to win a $1,000 gift card to a retailer of your choice? Hot or Not is hosting a sweepstakes through February 14th in support of their new app. To enter, simply click here to enter your email address and “Like” Hot or Not’s Facebook page. You will be able to snag 2 bonus entries every time a friend enters through your referral link, which you can optionally share after entering. Sweepstakes is open to entrants 18 years of age or older; winner will be announced on February 15th.
If you’ve been on the Internet for a while, the name “Hot or Not” may be ringing some bells. I remember seeing this site for the first time in 2000, when it started as a page where people would submit their photos for random users to “Rate”. I remember browsing through the site because it was a novelty when it started – you had to give a rating for each photo before you could see another, so I always made sure to rate each photo as a perfect “10”. Man, browsing photo sites took forever on dial-up!
Unlike a lot of other pages from 2000 – like my Geocities websites – Hot or Not still exists today. What a blast from the past! Apparently, Hot or Not morphed into an online dating service, where the “1 to 10” rating was abandoned and replaced with a “Yes” or “No” option for “Do you want to meet this person”? The idea is that if two people in the same area rank each other’s photos as “Yes/Hot”, it will notify them of the mutual attraction. (This reminds me of another phenomenon from the early 2000s – does anyone remember those “Secret admirer” websites?!) But the site is very much up-to-the-minute these days, with a new iPhone app and Facebook connectivity. If you want to learn more or check out the app, you can visit the same URL they’ve had since 2000: HotOrNot.com.
