Google adds movie search

Google has added a feature that allows people to search for movies playing in their city and find other film-related information.

The new feature, announced Wednesday, is available on the company's search site and can be accessed with a computer, cell phone or other wireless devices that use SMS (short message service).

Using the service, people can type "movie:" into the Google search window and follow it with keywords to find out film titles, actors, directors and other information. Consumers also can type in local data, such as a zip code, city or state, to find theaters and show times.

The search market is witnessing intense competition, with leading players unveiling new, specialized search offerings in an effort to win market share. Google also recently unveiled a prototype of a service to search TV programming.

Google competitors Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN already have services for searching movie listings and related information.

[jamie.p.walsh]

These are great features

I have never really understood this recent push toward search, mainly, why NOW, why not before. Nonetheless, I am really starting to come around to google. I have never really had any allegiance toward one or the other, but the features that google has been developing are really becoming ubiquitous.

Will the define:, movie:, and video features become tabs? I would like it if you could simply type in the term and click through the tabs to see various feature result sets. I'd also like to see the new maps feature incorporated into the "local" site.

I am not sure what revenue model will eventually win, but as a consumer AND a business owner, I am not too happy with the pay for performance model. To me, this allows larger organizations and companies to generate higher visibility and the consumer should be able to have more choices visible. As a small business owner, I can't compete with companies who can afford 10x per click than I can. In addition, if my business is competing at that level, is my 1/10th price that puts me on page 4 even worth it?