IMDb: shouldn't a better site have replaced it by now?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m curious if there are any sites similar to IMDb that may someday unseat it as the go to entertainment information site.

The reason I’m wondering is that IMDb repeatedly comes off as a hack site whenever I venture onto it. Some examples:

  • Sometimes the layout is reminiscent of a terrible Myspace page with overwhelming background (new movie promotion tie ins as background with no regard to how silly it looks).

  • They seem to enjoy giving the viewer a giant F-you! with a ton of insufferable ads. I can’t stand the ones that expand across the screen and block content once the page loads. They also seem to have a ton of conventional pop-up ads.

  • Incorrect information. It seems like whenever I hear a celebrity interview and IMDb is mentioned, a comment about errors on their page comes up.

  • Along the same lines as above: what info that may be correct seems written by some 12 year-old rabid fan (way too much inane information that was probably submitted to IMDb on construction paper written in crayon).

  • The message boards. Good lord, the message boards. Who are the people that write those messages?!

So I wonder, with the issues above (and I’m sure many more that I have not mentioned) isn’t it strange that a legit site that is well maintain and reviewed/moderated would not have replace it? I wish I had more time this morning so I could try and find sites of what I’m talking about, but I think you can get the gist.

2

The meat of the IMDB, the credits, are by and large correct. That’s why nothing will ever come along to replace it because it doesn’t need replacing.

The rest of your complaints would likely apply to any site that replaced it as well.

3

Considering I have rated over 800 films on there, whatever site eventually replaces it better have a way of importing my vote history.

4

Layout: Who cares? I’m there for the (few) facts.

Ads: Who cares? I’ve got almost all advertising blocked on almost all the web. If you don’t, you’re http://www.doingitwrong.com/

Facts: Beyond name, run dates, major actors / production people & a 3-sentence plot synopsis, what’s there to want to know?

Mssageboards, AKA Fan commentary? Being excited & knowledable about entertainment is the lowest form of human awareness and interaction. It’s not sensible to expect anything better from those folks. And any other crowd-sourced web site is going to have the same problem.

5

IMDB supplies a data feed of movie information to many websites and applications. It’s one of the main sources for that data, and for that reason alone the site will never go away.

6

Something MAY replace it but it will be a battle.

You have to remember it’s harder to make a site now then it was in the "old days.’ By this I mean BG -> Before Google

Once a site gets into Google and to the top of Google it’s hard to displace it. This is because Google’s ranking system feeds on itself. Add to this, Wikipedia, which links every celebrity to IMDB.

You know have two sites with high ranks and a way to drive traffic. IMDB has two areas. One for paying guests and one for those surfing in.

Now let’s suppose for a minute, I create a site that is better in format and style and has all the information as IMDB. So what? The challange becomes, “How do I get it to the top of Google.”

Google’s own research shows that 90% of all searchers never go beyond the first page. This is imortant. Because if no one knows your site exists, it doesn’t matterr how much better it is.

So you have to have links to get to the top, or money to buy a sponsored link.

OR you need a Rosie O’Donnell or Oprah to go to bat for you. If you recall eBay was a small time site, till Rosie O’Donnell got on her talk show and everyday was screaming about how great the site was and it is “Just like the world’s biggest garage sale.” Then she’d show you all the bargains she bought. Same with Oprah and an unknown Mr Obama, who is president bascially 'cause Oprah thought he was cute.

If you look at SEO (search engine optimization) you will see it’s not easy to get to the top of Google for every day or common words. Oh sure if I want to get to the top of Google for a world like “Dumpletone,” a word I made up, I could do that.

In theory it should be easy to create a program to scrape the IMDB. That is spider the site and gather all the information. Once you have that you can reorganize and put it in a user friendly format.

This is not technically complex. The real issue is once you have the site, how to get people to use it.

Finally remember Google is no longer private. They are a public company and have to answer to their stockholders. And stockholders hold stocks in other companies as well. One thing that is clear is that since going public Google’s algorthims change less often and spam remains even a bigger problem. For every spam page Google allows that means your legit site is one place lower.

7

I’ve never seen any of that on the IMDB. I think the problem must be at your end.

8

Why? People on the Dope talk about entertainment all the time. I don’t think the problem is the subject–just the level of intelligence of the average person.

9

Or you’re just not visiting the site during the opening weeks of big movies. The week Alice in Wonderland opened a giant ad you couldn’t close would take over your screen until it was done. There have been several other ads over content just like that too.

10

Because as far as pure information goes, no movie site has as many movies (and now tv shows, video games, etc.) as imdb. Wikipedia is a close 2nd, but imho, the nature of the information is different. If I want a summary, I go to Wiki, if I want to know who played Goon 3, I go to imdb.

But if you mainly want serious movie discussion, you can try any number of sites. But, for the near future, I really can’t see any movie site with the scope of imdb, ever.

11

I just Googled “Dumpletone”. Congrats, you’re already number one!

12

I agree the IMDB has blind spots and could be improved. My egregious is the information about older and obscure TV series. Because they require you enter the cast members for each episodes, there are many where the only people listed on the front page are one-shot guest stars while the actual stars of the show are listed as being in “unknown episodes” (this does seem to be improving, though).

But they’re still the best guide. The only real competitor is allmovies.com, which has some great critical stuff, but, for some reason, never comes up on Google searches (neither does their sister site, allmusic, which is still the best resource for music information).

13

Besides, true aficionados in any field usually give way too much info and write like they’re submitting in crayon on construction paper.

14

I wouldn’t know anything about ads or popups since I have those blocked (and why don’t you, for that matter?). But it serves its purpose and if you want to design, code, and launch a fancier / better / more accurate site by all means go ahead and do it.

15

The message boards aren’t the worst I’ve seen. It probably depends on the movie. You’ll wade through a lot of crap comments for the latest blockbusters, but if you want to talk about a classic, it’s not bad. The only problem is that the discussion isn’t current, unless the movie was recently on TCM’s rotation.

I think Amazon’s boards are the worst, if we’re talking major, popular websites. The discussions often aren’t related to the book you’re looking at. What’s up with that? Why is that textbook thread on almost every page?

16

The IMDb was one of the earliest sites on the web, and so has brand recognition. I think it was there when I first logged on way back in the middle ages of the internet: 1996. It will take a hell of a misstep for it to be superseded now.

17

Yes that is my experience also. While there are plenty of dumb comments it’s not that hard to skim past them and there are some good discussions as well particularly for older movies. After watching a film I often visit the IMDB message boards to figure out some confusing plot point. For example just yesterday I watched “In the heat of the night” which has a rather abrupt and confusing resolution which was clearer after reading the message boards.

18

I think the point was that you have the power not to see ads. Ads on a site (unless they’re so intrusive that they can’t be blocked) are not likely to drive people away. People who are annoyed by ads tend to block them, and people who don’t block ads tend not to care.