IMDB turns 18
You may have heard me say this before, but it's worth repeating: I love the Internet.
From my first forays onto Yahoo in the mid-1990s, to my slow, methodical construction of a perfect rating on eBay to the dozens of times I use Google every day, there is simply no question about it: I am head over heels gaga for the medium.
But no matter how many times I laugh at a YouTube video, read something interesting on NYTimes.com or consult Wikipedia, I think my true favorite online hangout is the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB.
What can I say? I love movies, watch them all the time and I find myself constantly doing searches on the site to find out where I recognize that actor in the third lead from or to see what other films or TV shows a director has made.
Yet even I was surprised when I discovered today that IMDB just turned 18 years old. Seriously. Eighteen.
Now, like me, you may not have thought it was possible for a Web site to be older than 14, since the Web didn't even come along until 1994. But there it was in my inbox today: an e-mail touting the fact that IMDB first launched on October 17, 1990, the creation of then-teenager Col Needham.
According to Wikipedia, the database got its start on Usenet newsgroups and later morphed into a proper Web site.
Regardless, this e-mail, sadly, also burst one of my bubbles of naivete (and sure, I have plenty of others left): the idea that IMDB was, despite its ever more polished look and feel, an independent site run by a small but dedicated team who just could not let a minute pass where someone like me can't find out whether Better off Dead or The Sure Thing came first (according to IMDB, they were both from 1985, but the latter preceded the former).
In fact, according to the release in my inbox, Amazon.com bought IMDB in 1998. Sigh.
No matter, though, because over the years, the site has stayed remarkably true to its original mission and to this day is the undisputed champion of movie and TV-related cross-referencing. Sure, it has a few bugs here and there, but in almost every test I've ever put the site through, it's given me exactly what I wanted, and settled more than a few arguments over whether this actor was in that film or not. He was. Or wasn't. I can't remember.
So, here's a big happy birthday to you, IMDB, on the occasion of your turning 18. Now, if only you could go vote on November 4.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
It lacks in one major area, though: The dearth of photos of the subjects of the articles. If you are one of those subjects, will you please send a nice picture of yourself (as we would know you best) to the folks at IMDb, or better yet, send a set of photos? I include in this request those who were in "smaller" movies or TV shows, and even those who weren't in front of the camera! I guarantee that we in audience land will be grateful. By the way, if you know or represent someone covered in the IMDb, would you please pass the word along? And thanks for the memories to all involved!
I disagree that it languished under Amazon's reign. It was actually languishing for years /before/ they bought it. Amazon wisely decided to leave it alone, and avoid letting it get buried in commercialism. Even today, it generates massive amounts of revenue through advertising, most of which is fairly unintrusive. (Or so I think -- I use an adblocker. :) )
In the last few years, Amazon has introduced IMDBpro, expanded into TV shows and episode listings, added more links to Amazon for easy purchasing, wishlisting, etc., user forums and wiki-style contributions, and most recently downloadable video.
I think without someone like Amazon behind this site, it probably would not have been able to sustain the kind of growth and popularity it enjoys today.
I do agree with sunnybob about the lack of photos, but a lot of this is due to copyright issues (movie studios and celebrities often charge an exorbitant amount of money to post photos on commercial sites like IMDB). For what it's worth, IMDBpro fills this gap with a lot more photos and other things that I would probably say are not worth the money unless you're in the industry.
Come on, IMDB's founder was born in 1967, you do the math how old was he in 1990.
Here is the link FYI: http://www.nndb.com/people/613/000117262/
or from the IMDB itself: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1000000/bio
Prior to that CompuServe, AOL where the guys who provided access to the Usenets, and provided connectivity over the internet even back in the late 80's when it was still managed and regulated by the fed's.
Prior to that CompuServe, AOL where the guys who provided access to the Usenets, and provided connectivity over the internet even back in the late 80's when it was still managed and regulated by the fed's.
The Internet is older than IMDB, but the Web came later. Not a very large percentage of current web users used pre-web internet - Usenet, FTP, Gopher, Archie, etc. Commercial access to the Internet came later in the 1990s.
I wouldn't have noticed that IMDB is an Amazon company unless I scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page.
For someone who uses the site that often....
- by paladin1000 October 18, 2008 10:49 AM PDT
- I think if the IMDB could vote... it would vote Obama
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