How do others rate your looks? Click to find out

Dare you expose yourself to the ultimate truth?

It is horrible, strangely addictive and a phenomenal success. The insecure need not apply.

'Am I hot or not' is the latest internet sensation, a new website created only six days ago by two unemployed Californians who may now make a fortune out of the craze.

For those brave enough to take up the challenge, www.amihotornot.com offers people a chance to find out how good-looking or otherwise the rest of the world thinks they are.

A series of anonymous pictures of men and women are presented to the viewer who is then invited to vote on their attractiveness on a scale of one to 10.

Already 1,000 people of all ages have sent in their photographs to the virtual beauty pageant and watched their scores fluctuate as complete strangers assess their looks.

Actual nudity is not encouraged and anything considered too risqué can be voted off the site by users. But despite that, the photograph with the highest average score (7.3 after 2,636 votes) yesterday was of a young woman in her underwear.

The internet user can choose to look at three files, men, women or both together. No personal details are supplied, and when you have voted you are shown what score everyone else gave them before being taken to peruse your next victim

Cruel? Some people are downright nasty although the amount of '10s' suggests that at least some people are too kind to be honest.

To take the step from judge to judgment you simply upload a photograph onto the internet and fill in the address on the AmIhot online form. The site then assigns it to its own pages.

AmIhot is being described as 'viral' - web language for a new idea that takes off without advertising or hype. Past examples are Microsoft's Hotmail address, which was launched and took off before the advertising campaign, and the site devoted to a Turkish man called Mahir. His homepage won a million hits within weeks as news spread of his bad English and touching friendliness.

'Word of mouth about innovative and free internet-based services means their growth takes off like a virus,' said Anne McCrory of Computerworld magazine. 'Then so-called viral websites are born.'

The two inventors of this latest hot potato, twenty-something former college roommates who will only be named as Jim and James, are stunned by the overwhelming success of the site.

'We never expected anything out of it. It was just a clever idea for a funny site. Suddenly we are deluged with emails and calls,' James told The Observer.

But now the founders are fascinated by the psychological pattern emerging from their brainchild.

'People are definitely more interested in voting for women than men and scores are lower in general for men than women. Also the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is proving true as even people with low average scores will always have a few nines or even 10s,' said James, who has posted his own picture on the site.

'I have had to face up to the fact that my score is just not going to go past 4.3. I think though that anyone worried about a low score should just add two to it. That will balance out the people who have voted just to be cruel.'

At the moment, there are no plans to make it possible for anyone featured on the site to be contacted by others.

A few well-known faces have been been sneaked on. Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani, singer with No Doubt, are there. And mere mortals whose scores were low can console themselves with the fact that Spears rated 6.9, less than a plump blonde in a bikini, but more than Stefani, who scored 6.6.

But it is the willingness of ordinary people to subject themselves to such scrutiny that is the most remarkable aspect. It seems people have always shared the lament of Scots poet Robert Burns: 'O would some power the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as others see us.'

• tracy.mcveigh@observer.co.uk