What's Hot on the Web Right Now?

Alexa keeps rolling out exciting new features. We recently made new features available on our Top Sites Lists, and those are being well-received by web professionals. While I work for Alexa Internet and am interested in that sort of data, I tend to like shiny things. So, for those of you who, like me, are interested in the new new thing, I would like to point out our newest homepage offering, which I like to call Hot URLs.

One of the most rewarding things about using and working for Alexa is the way the Toolbar is a two-way street. Each member of the community, in addition to getting a useful tool, is giving back. Now, we're all pitching in to identify specific pages that are blazing to the top of the charts. Every five minutes, we determine the most popular pages visited by our Toolbar users during the last hour, and update a list of What's Hot on the Web Right Now.

So, on a busy morning at the office, I could take a quick break to look at the Alexa homepage and learn that Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck had a heated exchange over Veteran's Day on The View. (You'll be relieved to know Whoopi intervened and moved the show along.)

One thing I've learned as we've been preparing the What's Hot on the Web feature to go live is that there's something for everyone. And seeing what's going viral as it happens, therefore scooping your friends, is highly addictive.

Let us know what you think of the new feature in the comments. And, of course, if you think we're missing the really hot stuff, be sure to download the Alexa Toolbar and start feeding us your tips.