The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is celebrating its 19th birthday! But wait, is that a typo? How come the IMDb is older than the first web browsers? Thankfully, the current IMDb is not as old as that. However, the idea is.
Col Needham, the founder of IMDb, first started the ball rolling with a series of Unix shell scripts in October 1990. The idea then was it would allow users to search the USENET discussion group, rec.arts.movies (a place where movie fans would gather to discuss movies and share knowledge), for movie information like a list of credits on the then-budding Internet. It was from this list and from Needham’s scripts was born the ‘Internet Movie Database’, a.k.a. the rec.arts.movies movie database.
It’s at this point IMDb can say that it’s so old, they didn’t even have web browsers yet during their time. And as time passed and the Internet started to grow into its recognizable shapes today, IMDb became one of the most popular sites around.
The site became so popular, the founders of IMDb thought of charging visitors a fee in order to maintain the site. Fortunately, Amazon came along in 1998 to buy the site and allowed users access to IMDb free of charge.
So, aside from the free information they’re offering since day one, IMDb now offers full-length feature films and TV episodes that site users can view for free. They also have NewsDesk, from which news partners can add their news feeds to their site, as well as individual pages for characters, plot synopses, FAQs, and parental guides.
They also started selling more professional features of their site, IMDb Pro, which is a subscription-based section with more information on movies. They offer this service to industry companies to help them make better business and creative decisions.
For filmmakers and festivals, IMDb offers their Withoutabox to help promote and distribute the work of these people. And for those who want to know the latest movie box office information, IMDb has their own tracking site with Box Office Mojo.
How popular is the site right now? IMDb states it gets 57 million visits each month. Now that’s a lot of people looking for information on their favorite movie. So the next time you wonder about who played Flash Gordon in the 1980 SF-movie, tell IMDb how much they’ve done a great job for the past 19 years. (Joseph N)
Source: TechCrunch, IMDb
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