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IMDb Turns 15

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on 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."

7 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. What other pre-web services are out there? by suso · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:What other pre-web services are out there? by blueg3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't think IMDB even comes close to being one of the oldest Internet services. While it predates the Web, perhaps, it's only by a month or so. ENQUIRE was developed in the 80s, and the first Web pages was written in late December, 1990. The answer here also greatly depends on what you mean by "an Internet service". In the very first days of the Internet, the Telnet protocol could be used to access a number of mainframes. At the time, UNIX access to a mainframe computer could certainly be considered a service.

  2. A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people. by CyricZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  3. Reverse Lookup by Buddy_DoQ · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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!

    --
    -Buddy of DoQ
  4. Ongoing IMDB Challenge by hal2814 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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)?

  5. How about adding music? by AugstWest · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

  6. "THE LIST" by Caped+Cod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.