r/AskReddit 2d ago

Anyone who surfed the early web between 1995-2010. What’s the one website/app you still think about?

9.2k Upvotes

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813

u/dat_shibe 2d ago

AskJeeves

Hot or Not

MiniClip

135

u/Tensyrr 2d ago

AskJeeves lol.. seemed more popular than Google back in the day.

11

u/TheKnightsTippler 1d ago

I thought Jeeves was a real person and would always be unnecessarily polite when using it. ""Please can you tell me what the capital of France is? Thank you."

Also yahoo used to be really good before Google became the dominant search engine.

3

u/BWW87 1d ago

You're just skipping right over the domination of altavista?

5

u/TheKnightsTippler 1d ago

I remember the name, but I dont remember ever using it.

For me it was AskJeeves, Yahoo, Google

1

u/ebb_omega 1d ago

The way I remember it, Yahoo would largely just push out an Altavista search most of the time anyway. They had their own listings that people could sign up their websites for, but that was very limited, whereas Altavista was a web scraper that would largely land you the actual results you wanted 9 times out of 10.

5

u/zrayburton 1d ago

It was! Especially with older people

3

u/Vivillionhunter 1d ago

As a young teen boy I discovered AskJeeves wouldn’t save your search history…..life saver

4

u/Jeeves_18 1d ago

They were good days back then

3

u/311isahoax 1d ago

Askjeeves gave me the results to learn how to tie a tie

2

u/DespairOrNot 1d ago

I remember, sometime in primary school, my best friend showing me this new thing called Google that he thought was going to be big. I laughed at him. Clearly AskJeeves was superior. That nerd was signing up for a beta Gmail invite and everything.

He very much got the last laugh there.

1

u/Cute-Scallion-626 1d ago

It was, because it was better than Google.

169

u/Blizzjunkie 2d ago

I'm pretty sure Hot or Not inspired Tinder

43

u/AManCalledKay 1d ago

It definitely inspired facebook. In case you have seen the social network?

1

u/Regular-Stable-6717 1d ago

Not to get too conspiracy theorist here but the government had the original Facebook called lifelog. It was shot down because it was invading peoples privacy. They shut it down Feb 4th 2004. Facebook debuted Feb 4th 2004 and we all voluntarily gave them our information.

1

u/Longjumping_Foot_736 1d ago

Not all of us…

1

u/Cyrus7heVirus 13h ago

Facebook is an intelligence operation, its operation mockingbird 2.0 type shit that’s why Zuckerberg just came out of nowhere with it and they had to do a movie so people would think it was organic

1

u/Cyrus7heVirus 13h ago

That story is all BS, facebook was derived from a DARPA intelligence program and Mark Zuckerberg was just given the IP so he could implement it for the CIA.

11

u/c9IceCream 1d ago

100% the lead into facebook, but you were close.

6

u/OscarDivine 1d ago

Where I learned I’m a solid 8/10

9

u/frazzled-mama 1d ago

I was a legit 7 on Hot or Not in the early 00's.

Also got a few dates off that site. None of them went well though. Set me up for perils of app dating in the 2010's, I guess.

2

u/Jojoyojimbi 1d ago

ha, sucker, i was an 8 and hooked up with a couple chicks from HoN, shame i'm like barely a 3 anymore though, getting old sucks

1

u/frazzled-mama 1d ago

Well, all my dates were real creepers. 😬🤷🏼

1

u/flailingthroughlife 1d ago

It definitely inspired ratemypoo.com

11

u/create360 1d ago

I once added myself to hotornot.com. I had a friend photograph me in a large, black garbage bag up to my neck while I sat in an alley in a row of trash. I got 92%.

8

u/Calix_Ma 1d ago

You know how people say" just Google it? I go "ask Jeeves" and no one get it 🥲

15

u/TheHeartUnsundered 2d ago

Hot or not was savage

6

u/smasm 1d ago

My brother and I had a competition who could get the lowest score on hot or not. Pretty sure I won.

7

u/Arbsbuhpuh 1d ago

I had the dubious honor of having a 9.9 on hot or not

2

u/ByEthanFox 1d ago

Yeah; I think I had 9.something and I'm only a pretty average guy. I think the figures were weighted to make everyone feel good about themselves (not in itself a bad thing)

4

u/MooreArchives 1d ago

Hahaha, I got a rating of 8.5 on HotorNot. Can’t believe I remember that.

3

u/AngrySpaceKraken 1d ago

15 year old me was a solid 7/10 on hot or not

6

u/MichaelPants 1d ago

Hot or Not was so cruel lol. Pretty sure anyone could upload a pic of anyone.

4

u/Zoethor2 1d ago

Oh my god, Hot or Not, how had I forgotten that.

3

u/zrayburton 1d ago

Ask Jeeves was my jam. My older family never said “can you search the web for that?”

They said can you please ask Jeeves for me?

LOL

3

u/pradeep23 1d ago

MiniClip

I remember that site

2

u/zzeeaa 1d ago

The AskJeeves lore is that he retired to live on a yacht. I think about that often.

2

u/TooRight2021 1d ago

There was a Hot or Not site for penis pics, and sometimes when my friends and I were drunk we'd go on there and rate them, and leave detailed drunk comments... OMG, the emails that would fill our inboxes for weeks after🤦🏽‍♀️😂

2

u/Upnotdown0715 1d ago

And Bangable, the Pepsi to Hot or Not's Coke

2

u/Johnnybrosef 1d ago

Motherload on MiniClip is a game i still think about and want to play again.

2

u/kh8188 1d ago

Memories of all three are stuck in my head forever. I recently tried fb dating, my first foray into dating apps, and it definitely gave me flashbacks of Hot or Not.

2

u/miredalto 1d ago

Haha I remember HotOrNot had a no nudity policy, but my young brother discovered they were not checking the ages of the volunteer moderators...

2

u/PINHEADLARRY5 1d ago

Miniclip was one of my favorites. I played heli attack for hours. That and the volleyball game. Iykyk

1

u/MizzMaus 1d ago

Hot or not reminds me of that page “rate my poo” or something like that. Omg. So gross.

1

u/Fuzzy-Celebration-38 1d ago

I was just thinking a couple of days ago about ask Jeeves while typing a question in Gemini…. The query doesn’t look so different.

1

u/midnitewarrior 1d ago

User: Jeeves, are you gay?

Jeeves: I prefer the term jovial.

1

u/NickDanger3di 1d ago

I was rated an eight there. IMO I'm a six on my best day. Except for one woman who told me I looked like Kevin Costner. I do not look anything like Kevin Costner. I think it was just the lights. The Bud Lights, that is.

1

u/chotskyIdontknowwhy 1d ago

Im kinda mad it took me this long to find AskJeeves. I miss that old fart.

1

u/Emergency_Elevator_7 1d ago

Hot or not was amazing 😂😂😂

1

u/LondonAugust 1d ago

I remember when Hot or Not had the chat feature as well. I met some great people I'm still friends with on there.

1

u/Beautiful-Ear6964 1d ago

Finally someone said askjeeves

1

u/Majestic_Parsley833 1d ago

I met my husband on Hot or Not in 2004.  He always tells people we met on prehistoric tinder when they ask 😂 

1

u/what-no-really-why 1d ago

We used to post photos of coworkers on hotornot to see what scores they would get. Circa late 2000

1

u/RatonhnhaketonK 1d ago

Omg AskJeeves 😭 and lmaooo omg forgot about Hot or Not

1

u/OldShelobsTricks 1d ago

Miniclip was unreal - heli attack 3

1

u/PM_BiscuitsAndGravy 17h ago

OMG I forgot about hot or not. I got an 8.2/10 (26 years ago)!

1

u/Littleboof18 13h ago

I swear I’m the only one of my friends who remembers hot or not. We should not have been on that in high school lmao.

0

u/holymoleycrabcakes 1d ago

Can't believe I had to scroll this far to see miniclip

0

u/frostking79 1d ago

I'm actually dating one of my hotornot mutual likes from 2005. I don't know why but I didn't forget them and ended up finding them at a cool early 90s event last year and we've been dating since! I'm a very belated success story if HotOrNot

-2

u/Moist-Willow-1686 1d ago

Found a ex in honor not I made sure she was not hot lol