International Law

Web Hot or Not?

Mashable reviews a new website, Web Hot or Not?:

Technorati founder David Sifry has just launched a website with investor friend Martin Varsavsky that is, in so many words, a Hot or Not for websites. Actually, it?s called Web Hot or Not, so you get the point right away here. Much like the original Hot or Not (for humans), Web Hot or Not touts a simple interface that shows in image screen shot of the website in question, radio buttons to select your rating, the average rating and your rating. Comments display below.

The fun of this all is that you don?t have to give anything up. This isn?t a ?judge and be judged? approach to rating websites based on their physical appearance. And that encourages you to really let loose.

While Sifry has indicated that Web Hot or Not is one of those fun little ideas that he threw out there ?just to see what happens,? we?re all wondering if the site and all its ratings will be used for real purposes? There?s a fair amount of surface data that can be compiled from such biased opinions of a site?s look, and this can be used in its own right for market research, especially if one would like to look to the comments for metadata.

Accordingly, we?re all really wondering if these ratings will be incorporated into Technorati in any way. Hey, it could happen. In the same way that StumbleUpon takes the approach of recommending new and interesting sites to users based on the collective interest of others, so too can Web Hot or Not, enabling a search & discovery aspect that?s got a rather narrow focus on a site?s aesthetic appeal.

Read more here.

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).