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IMDb Turns 15 299

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the where-else-would-i-go dept.
An anonymous reader writes "15 years ago today, Col Needham posted some shell scripts to rec.arts.movies which allowed anyone to search lists of actors, actresses, directors, and biographies. From this humble beginning -- which predates Yahoo, Google, and even the web itself -- the IMDb has wrangled the collective wisdom of millions of submitters to become not only a top 100 website but also a standard Hollywood tool for filmmaking. IMDb is celebrating with a retrospective of the last 15 years of IMDb and movies. Congratulations to IMDb and the internet community that built it."
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IMDb Turns 15 More

IMDb Turns 15

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  • What other pre-web services are out there? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by suso ( 153703 ) * on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:05PM (#13811611) Journal
    Its easy to see that the IMDB is one of the oldest if not the oldest internet services (I'm not talking about protocols). And it also predates the web. I was wondering if any of you could name other Internet services that predate the web and still exist today. What constitutes a service is probably difficult because things like IMDB made a move from Usenet to Web which are two very different protocols (although they used them simularly).

    DISCLAIMER: Again, i'm not talking about protocols like HTTP, Usenet itself, IRC, etc.

  • A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CyricZ ( 887944 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:07PM (#13811620)
    I just want to say Thanks! to everyone who has contributed to the the IMDb effort. Indeed, time and time again I have found it to be the ultimate resource when it comes to films. The database is always very complete, the summaries and cast lists accurate, and all in all it is a very helpful website.

    Many cheers and pip to them all! May they continue to provide such a useful service for years to come.

  • I'd like IMDB more if... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:07PM (#13811622)
    I'd like IMDB more if they didn't charge to submit basic photos to their database. I have permission for one star on their site to submit her picture (none is presently available) and they want money for something that improves their site overall.

    Leaves me with the feeling that bigness + age != niceness.

    • Re:I'd like IMDB more if... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FadedTimes ( 581715 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:12PM (#13811671)
      then the Star can pay the fee and have a picture loaded. It helps prevent people posting false pictures or trying to have the star have a negative image.

      • Re:I'd like IMDB more if... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by magefile ( 776388 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @05:18PM (#13812208)
        Really? Because the other information (biographical and trivia-related, for example) that people can post for free can be (and I've seen many circumstances where this is the case) false and reputation-damaging, or simply an invasion of privacy. Don't get me wrong, IMDB is really neat, but there's no way for an individual to correct or limit the information about themselves.
    • "bigness + age != niceness."

      It's still a very nice and useful service, but bigness + self-sustaining does require a bit less in the way of nicety.
    • Do A-list movie stars have to pay to get their picture submitted? I understand the purpose for limiting photos for independent actors who use the site as an online resume; however, sometimes I don't remember a specific actor playing a certain role and I just wish that there were a picture there. Sometimes the galleries just feel empty.

      • Re:I'd like IMDB more if... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Bun ( 34387 )
        Do A-list movie stars have to pay to get their picture submitted? I understand the purpose for limiting photos for independent actors who use the site as an online resume; however, sometimes I don't remember a specific actor playing a certain role and I just wish that there were a picture there. Sometimes the galleries just feel empty.

        If these actors are using the site as an on-line resume, $35 is a trival (tax deductable) expense, especially when you consider the potential benefit.
      • Do A-list movie stars have to pay to get their picture submitted?

        IMDB also use pictures from wireimage, so if the A-lister attends virtually any premiere they'll get a photo on IMDB for free.

        If they want a different photo, I'd guess they have to pay, yeah.

    • They know that they have everyone by the balls (so to speak) so they can do whatever they want.

      Their message boards started to require logged-in registration just to view messages (before you could read but not post- that was fair). They have instituted a few measures to cut down on trolls and have implemented a ranking system but the same teeny-bopper "It rulex/suxors" comments are still there because they have no way to police this sort of nonsense.

      They are also pushing the paid version, which seems to

    • Who? (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )
      So who is this gal? ;)
    • I'd like them more if they actually updated their site.

      I've submitted information to them on a couple of occasions, and the information still hasn't shown up.

      An example: the movie Mannequin [imdb.com]. IMDB says that there is no DVD available, but I happen to own one (and have for almost two years.) I submitted the information for it over 8 months ago, (including the barcode so they could even check it if they need to.)

      This is what it shows for my update history:

      The update has already been sent to IMDb so there is

  • Thank you IMDb! (Score:5, Funny)

    by decipher_saint ( 72686 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:07PM (#13811626)
    Without you I wouldn't know that actor's name that was in that one movie that uhh... oh wait I know this one, he starred with umm, shit, what was her name?

    As a gift I will unblock all the ads for one day!

  • Reverse Lookup (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Buddy_DoQ ( 922706 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:12PM (#13811667) Homepage
    IMDB has always been there for me when I need to know the name of an actor or crew that contributed to a given film. I can't always recall actor names, and it's always interesting to see what other films the director has made. Sometimes I go in looking for one little tidbit and end up spending hours digging through the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, as it were.

    Cheers!

  • Alternate Interfaces (Score:5, Informative)

    by anandpur ( 303114 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:15PM (#13811692)
    More than just top and bottom 250 movies http://www.imdb.com/Top/ [imdb.com]

    http://www.imdb.com/interfaces [imdb.com]
    http://us.imdb.com/Licensing/structure.html [imdb.com]
    http://us.imdb.com/database_statistics [imdb.com]
    • The interfaces [imdb.com] link above has a place for you to download text file exports of most of the actual movie data (attrociously normalized). I have occassionally wanted to use this data on my own site for various purposes, but there are all kinds of nasty warnings about copyright and how all one's base belongs to them. It had been my understanding that one could not copyright a collection of facts, though one could copyright a collection of facts organized and presented in a particular manner. Legally, is ther

  • IMDb is a complete waste of time! (Score:5, Funny)

    by east coast ( 590680 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:15PM (#13811696)
    Don't get me wrong, I love IMDb but I can not think of many single sites that can kill as much time as IMDb. Somedays I find myself looking at obscure actors/actresses just to see if I can find them in other films elsewhere, reading bios looking for the brother of the guy at the party in "Sixteen Candles", so one and so forth... The number of hours I spend on IMDb is not a kind number to consider.

    People think I watch a lot of films when the truth is that I just read too much IMDb for my own good.
  • I love IMDB, but I really think they ought to change their name by now. They have info on movies, television, video games, you name it. Something more befitting of a database that has more than just movie information.

    • Re:Name change? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by totallygeek ( 263191 ) <sellis@totallygeek.com> on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:21PM (#13811751) Homepage
      I love IMDB, but I really think they ought to change their name by now. They have info on movies, television, video games, you name it.
      I think it is the fact they have a four-letter domain that is the stopper. Finding a short domain name is tough, or in the case of four letters, impossible.

      • Re:Name change? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Digital Vomit ( 891734 )
        I think it is the fact they have a four-letter domain that is the stopper.

        Internet Media DataBase?

      • Re:Name change? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Fortress ( 763470 )
        I think it is the fact they have a four-letter domain that is the stopper. Finding a short domain name is tough, or in the case of four letters, impossible.

        Perhaps they could change it to "The Internet Media Database." It would be a little more indicative of what they do, but wouldn't require a domain change.

    • Re:Name change? (Score:5, Funny)

      by east coast ( 590680 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:25PM (#13811778)
      They have info on movies, television, video games, you name it. Something more befitting of a database that has more than just movie information.

      Indeed. Just look at Burger King. They lost a lot of ground on McDonalds because everyone thinks they only sell burgers. No fries, no Coca Cola, just burgers. Altho I am shocked at the lack of Scottish dishes at McDonalds. I felt betrayed.

      The same thing holds with RadioShack. I thought it was radio only until I found out they also sold TVs and phones. WTF is going on around here?
    • I love IMDB, but I really think they ought to change their name by now.

      Or drop the "I'm" and just be "Debbie".

  • Ongoing IMDB Challenge (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:15PM (#13811698)
    IMDB is just fun to play around with. My friends and I have this challenge to see who has the most entries for acting in the IMDB. Orson Welles was the top guy for about a week. Then Peter North took over. He stayed there for a long time until it occurred to me to look up Mel Blanc. Anybody out there know someone who can beat Blanc (898 entries for acting)? Anybody out there want to guess on tops in other categories (writer, producer, notable TV appearances)? Is there a way to search IMDB for these statistics (of course, that would be cheating)?

  • Original Usenet Post (Score:5, Informative)

    by byteCoder ( 205266 ) * on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:16PM (#13811705) Homepage
    The original Usenet post is here [google.com], courtesy of Google.

  • 15 years too many? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Will2k_is_here ( 675262 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:22PM (#13811759)
    I don't know about others but I've really come to dislike imdb.
    1. The design is terrible. I find it unappealing. (not that this is a necessity, but it would be nice to see a facelift). I think it's the choice of font.
    2. The layout is terrible. There are no borders to show logical divisions in the content. It still feels like an online list of data circa 1990.
    2. Too many ads, in too obtrusive places
    3. A9 box right by the search box. At least use some integration between the two like Wikipedia does with google. Don't try to sucker users into using A9 when clearly this isn't what they want.
    4. Required to register to even *look* at the discussions.
    5. Trivia and other user contributed stuff is always redundant and filled with grammatical errors.
    6. ?
    • "4. Required to register to even *look* at the discussions."

      The discussions are not worth your time, trust me.
    • 7. Profit

      Quite literally.

    • Re:15 years too many? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rirath.com ( 807148 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @05:46PM (#13812407)
      4. Required to register to even *look* at the discussions.

      IMDB has what I consider to be one of the worst "discussions" on the web today. Perhaps this has gotten better since they started requiring registration, but I'm highly doubtful. The funny thing about the IMDB boards was that you could pick pretty much any thread from any movie, and within 3-5 posts it would degrade into a total flamewar. And not just a debate of the movie, or any topic, mind you... just an all out mindless flame war.

      It was comic in its uselessness.

  • IMDB Bottom 100 List (Score:5, Funny)

    by PhatboySlim ( 862704 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:26PM (#13811789)
    How did Britney's Spears' Crossroads movie end up on IMDB's Bottom 100 [imdb.com] list? It's like the best movie of all time! Thank God that movies like Gigli, Son of the Mask, and From Justin to Kelly aren't on this list! Oh wait, there they are....

    Guess I should be on the lookout for "Legend Of Zorro" to be appearing here soon as well...

  • Here's the mandatory google link:

    After a quick search, here is [google.com] the oldest google groups reference I could find.

  • How about adding music? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AugstWest ( 79042 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:30PM (#13811816)
    It drive me *nuts* that they don't list any information about the music used in the movies.

    It's a vital part of every movie, as vital as any of the other info listed, but for some reaon imdb always excludes it.

    What gives?

  • Could someone please explain... (Score:5, Funny)

    by higuy48 ( 568572 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:31PM (#13811829) Homepage Journal
    ... how The Man with the Smallest Penis in Existence and the Electron Microscope Technician Who Loved Him [imdb.com] is not on the Top 250 movies of all time list?
  • What? The IMDB was created before Al Gore invented the Internet? *duck*

  • They put the DB in IMDB (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DysenteryInTheRanks ( 902824 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:35PM (#13811856) Homepage
    So the history article says the site was founded with lists long culled by rec.arts.movies regulars, and that these lists are the "backbone" of the site to this day. Did any of these people ever get paid, particularly when Amazon.com acquired the site?

  • A copy of IMDb on Jan 22, 1997! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:37PM (#13811878) Homepage Journal
    http://web.archive.org/web/19970122085113/http://i mdb.com/ [archive.org] (couldn't use HTML link for it, so copy and paste that (no spaces)).

  • wrangled? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rakerman ( 409507 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:40PM (#13811894) Homepage Journal
    If by "wrangled" you mean "took contributions that users gave to the community for free, and used them to make money" then yes. Wrangled. Our friends at GraceCDDBNote are great wranglers too.
  • Happy 15th birthday, IMDb! I write about movies on my blog (http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]), and IMDb is THE place the go for trivia. The site is a trivia galore. Where else can you find out that Peter Sellers was supposed to play four roles in "Dr. Strangelove", including Major Kong, which was eventually played by Slim Pickens? And in "2001: the Space Odyssey", by incrementing IBM you get HAL, for HAL-9000 the badass computer, although Arthur C. Clarke, the co-screenwriter, claims HAL stands for Heuri

  • IMDb Turns 15... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Afecks ( 899057 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:42PM (#13811922)
    ...and so does most of the people on IMDb forums

  • I smell some CDDB here (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Karamchand ( 607798 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:45PM (#13811940)
    ..a community project which evolved into a company just bringing money to a very small percentage of people involved in the original project. How sad.
    • Your comparison is invalid? CDDB charged for access to all the files contributed, IMDB remains absolutely free for all the same consumer information one can post.

      Consider your payback the ability to access any of that information, and its continuous uptime.

  • Rottentomatoes.com (Score:2, Informative)

    by borawjm ( 747876 )
    Since IMDb is more for reference, I personally prefer rottentomatoes.com [rottentomatoes.com] for my "scoop" on movies.

    I also like boxofficemojo.com [boxofficemojo.com] to track a particular movie's progress at the box office.

    I think the only thing that I use IMDb for is to look what movies a particular actor starred in and vice versa.

  • IMDB (Score:3, Interesting)

    by modi123 ( 750470 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:51PM (#13811982) Homepage Journal
    IMDB (1990)
    Directed by: Col Needham
    Writing credits: Jeff Bezos
    Michel H.
    Jon R.
    Murray C.
    Ron H.
    Giancarlo C.
    Peter S.
    Oliver H.
    Jake D.

    Genre: Movies, TV, geeks, videophiles, one-line-aholics

    User rating: * * * * * * * * 8.5/10 [643,044 votes]

    Cast overview, first billed only:
    Col Needham ... .rec.arts.movies

    MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violent content, archaic GUI, and being free
    Run time: 15 years
    Country: International
    Language: French / German / Italian / English
    Color: Color : Techniolor
    Certification: USA: PG-13

    Trivia:

    How do I break into show business?

    Semi-famous actors (often people who've done a lot of commercials or character roles), writers and agents/managers with varying levels of scruples keep certain arts-themed publications filled with ads, week after week, promising to tell you the secrets... if you pay for their seminar, service or book. In fact, preying on the "wannabe" is a cottage industry in any field that puts up barriers to entry, be it the movies or publishing or the music industry. We look at these people much like the get-rich-quick gurus on late-night TV... it stands to reason that they make more money telling you how to get rich with their secrets than they do using them, otherwise they'd be too busy using them to have time to sell them to you for $49.95.

    The best advice we can give you are these few points...

    1. Don't quit your day job. It can take years and you'll need money to live. Harrison Ford quit acting and worked in construction for a few years before coming back and getting his break. Bruce Willis was a waiter and bartender while he tried to get stage work in New York. Even people who seem to be overnight sensations played bit parts and struggled before they suddenly burst onto the scene in a prominent role.

    2. A real agent or manager will not ask you for money (be it an "up-front fee" or "seed money"). They make money when they get you a job. Also, in California, talent agents must be licensed and there are laws governing their relationship with clients. Go to the unions, preferably SAG (Screen Actors Guild) or AFTRA (American Federation of Radio and Television Artists) or WGA (Writers Guild of America), and ask for their "franchised agency" list. You can buy it for a nominal fee or in some cases get it online for free. These lists will contain licensed agents who have signed contracts with the unions to follow specific rules when representing clients.

    3. Take classes. It may be hard figuring out whether the $10 per session class is as good as the $100 per session class, and we can't help you there, but classes give you two benefits. First, they help you hone and perfect your craft, whatever branch of show biz you want to be in. Second, they will help flesh out a weak resume. If you don't have credits, you need classes. If you're wondering about the credits of the person teaching the class, look them up in our database. Except for writers on individual TV show episodes, we keep pretty good records.

    4. Until you're commanding $20 million per film, you're not entitled to have a big ego. Don't reject parts you think are too small or insignificant because you're too busy looking for your big break. Judi Dench won an Oscar for six minutes of screen time.

    If you're looking for books on breaking into the business, you may want to check out Amazon.com's entertainment book section where you can find books about screenwriting, acting, directing, etc.
    How do I break into show business? [imdb.com]

  • "THE LIST" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Caped Cod ( 633799 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @04:53PM (#13812005)
    Even prior to Col's nifty script (which quite certainly was the beginning of the searchable IMDB), there was this innocent little posting with "THE LIST" as its subject. I don't recall the original author.

    The body of the article was a rather short (5 - 10, IIRC) list of actresses. This list was better known as "the list of actresses we wish we could boink".

    We guy-nerds (and maybe some properly-inclined gal-nerds) added to THE LIST for a few weeks until some decided that our salaciousness required male targets as well. Eventually, the lists, umm, grew and the "want to boink" aspect somewhat, umm, fell off. :-)

    So, before it went legit, the forerunner of IMDB was completely founded on fantasizing about sex.
  • IMDB was one of the first websites I ever looked at, back when I took a 1-hour seminar on "Using the Internet" back in fall 1994. (For almost a year I used the terms "web" and "Mosaic" interchangably, until I got a PPP dialer for my computer and installed Netscape. Other than that, it was all Terminal and Lynx unless I wanted to go into a computer lab.)

    The other sites were the instructor's home page (which, like most home pages back then, consisted mainly of a much of links) and, IIRC, some directory call
  • IMDB was one of the first big sites to use mod_perl. Congrats, IMDB! Glad to see you still going strong.

  • Now a marketing tool but still useful (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hung_himself ( 774451 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @05:44PM (#13812394)
    The ratings are somewhat helpful. I find that the audience is a bit too young and haven't seen enough films not made by Spielberg and Lucas, but you take that into account. And there's always been the film studies poseurs, the 13 year-olds, the fanboys etc that you have to filter out when reading reviews but that has always been part of the fun. Marketing shills are becoming too numerous and tedious though.

    Still it's very useful for settling arguments and figuring out where you've seen that babe/hunk before. Also it can be cathartic to post a rant about how badly you just wasted your last 10 bucks...

  • Good and bad on IMDB (Score:4, Informative)

    by Belseth ( 835595 ) on Monday October 17, 2005 @07:17PM (#13812976)
    I use IMDB but I'm not a big fan. I have over 300 films under my belt and yet I have maybe a dozen listings. They demand verification of credits so I gave up on them years ago. They had two glaring errors in my listing so I contacted them both times and both times they refused to correct the mistakes until I threatened legal action. I nearly lost a job because a Producer believed the credits on IMDB were accurate and questioned my resume. I was forced to verify some of my biggest credits before he'd accept the bulk of my resume. Most put too much faith in IMDB which makes it dangerous to the working people in the industry. A friend has an academy award and to this day they refuse to acknowledge it in his bio. It's a handy but over used service given how wildly inaccurate the information can be in the listings and they aren't inclined to correct errors.

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