NEWSLETTER #16
December 1997
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Welcome to issue 16 of the IMDb newsletter. The newsletter is intended to
keep database users and contributors informed of the latest developments
from the management team. Comments and suggestions are welcome and should
be directed to newsletter@imdb.com. Issue 17 is scheduled for February.
Yes, this is the "December" issue; it obviously got delayed a bit.
See the further information section at the end of this file for more
information about The Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
this issue edited by Jon Reeves
Contents
by Mark Harding
A new field that complements the existing BT: field has been added
to the Biography list. The "Portrayed In" field is used to denote
films in which people have been played by other actors but that are not
biographical movies about that particular person. A good example would
be a biographical movie about a particular person in which other real
people appear; the primary actor would receive a BT: entry while all
others would be eligible for a PI: entry.
For example, in the movie:
Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story (1995) (TV)
Woody Allen was portrayed by Dennis Boutsikaris while the movie is a
biographical movie about Mia Farrow. So, Woody Allen would receive a PI:
entry and Mia Farrow would receive a BT: entry.
by Alan Jay
The IMDb now offers quick access to a range of pages via the Channel
function of the latest versions of Internet Explorer and PointCast.
This allows quick access to the regularly updated content on our site
including Movie News, Anniversaries, and the Quote of the Day. For further
details see the Channels page.
by Mark Harding
A new optional User Registration system was launched recently. Registering
with IMDb will allow you to customize the site to your own preferences
as well as giving you access to a number of new features that are only
available to registered users.
The number of current services is small but some major additions are
planned for the coming months including on-line vote histories, personal
movie databases, movie recommendations, local cinema schedules, chat
areas and many others.
The LiveVotes section is a new area of the IMDb that complements the
existing vote ratings sections. The current ratings are updated on a weekly
basis and published each Monday. The LiveVotes section is updated every
hour using votes collected from our registered users throughout the week.
A number of reports are generated from the data, including weekly, daily
and hourly reports as well as ones based around films in release and film
released this year.
On each page you can update your own vote history by casting your votes
against those already listed. Your votes will then be included in the
next set of reports.
New reports will be added over the coming weeks.
by Alan Jay
Since the last Newsletter the IMDb has announced partnerships with
a number of sites to provide a more integrated service in a range of
areas. These include:
TV Listings
We now offer links to TV Listings both via a "Movies Now Playing on
US TV" which lists the current schedules for movies playing and a more
sophisticated linking process which places an "OnTV" Icon on movie pages
that are playing in the next 7 days - somewhere on US TV.
In addition to this you will also find "OnTV" links on people's pages
from stars, directors, and producers to members of the crew. This allows
you to quickly find out what movies, with say John Travolta or directed
by James Cameron, are playing this week on US TV. This service is in
partnership with GIST TV Listings and is sponsored
by Roxy Systems.
Trailers
We now offer links to trailers for many current and recent releases. This service is provided in
conjunction with the VideoDome.Com Network using the VDO plug-in (built
into IE 4 and a plug in to Netscape). In addition you will find links
to studio sites and other locations with trailers in alternate formats.
Movie Schedules
For some time we have linked to MovieLink to provide US users information
on US Show times in major cities. We now offer a similar service for UK
cinemas times in conjunction with Scoot offering links to movie schedules
throughout the UK, see their site for further details
or see the "Now Playing" Icon on our title pages. Also on those pages
are links to other services around the world.
Video Purchase and Rental
Just a reminder that our Video Sales and Rental partner in the US is
Reel.com and links can be found behind the "Buy" Icon on the site.
Posters
Another reminder that the Nostalgia Factory support and sponsor the Posters
list; see the Poster Browser for further details.
by Col Needham
IMDb recently completed its seventh year of operation, and its fourth year
as a web site. The rate of growth still amazes us. At the end of last
year we covered 90,000 movies (growth of 25,000 in 1996) and here we are
now at nearly 127,000 movies; the number of filmography entries grew by
over 600,000 (growth of 450,000 in 1996) to over 1,950,000. This year a
total of 47,900 people (30,349 in 1996) submitted a total of 2,852,250
lines of data (1,858,457 in 1996), averaging 54,850 lines per week
(35,740 in 1996). At the start of this year I expected to be reporting
smaller growth rates now given there are fewer holes in our coverage,
but here we are again with record submissions! What can we say but thanks
for helping IMDb maintain its position as the number one movie web site.
This year has been a busy one once again with many new data types,
searches and features added to the database. There's a good reminder on
the What's New page.
Many thanks and have a great 1998.
by Jon Reeves
Here's the most popular searches people have done lately, based on total
pages for the week ending December 7.
Titles:
- 18. Alien: Resurrection (1997)
- 32. Titanic (1997)
- 9. Scream (1996)
- 23. Men in Black (1997)
- 5. Star Wars (1977)
- 14. Pulp Fiction (1994)
- -. Flubber (1997)
- 69. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
- 21. Scream 2 (1997)
- -. Rainmaker, The (1997)
- 37. Aliens (1986)
- 250. Amistad (1997)
- 3. L.A. Confidential (1997)
- 8. Star Wars: Episode I (1999)
- 77. Alien (1979)
- 56. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
- -. Spiceworld (1997)
- 39. Blade Runner (1982)
- 7. Contact (1997)
- 42. Braveheart (1995)
The only real surprises here are the sudden resurgence of
Braveheart and the heavy interest in
Spiceworld. Seasonal boost to
A Christmas Story at #36, #53 the
Alastair Sim version of
Scrooge; we've seen a lot of visits
from Christmas-theme pages lately. Actually, lots of interest in classics,
like
Taxi Driver,
Casablanca, and
The Godfather. Plus a smattering of understandable interest in the
older Bond titles as well.
People:
- 5. Shannon Tweed
- 8. Sharon Stone
- 3. Pamela Anderson
- 17. Petra Verkaik
- 4. Tom Cruise
- 1. Kim Basinger
- 7. Brad Pitt
- 6. Demi Moore
- 12. Teri Hatcher
- 10. Harrison Ford
- 14. Michelle Pfeiffer
- 11. Traci Lords
- 9. Mel Gibson
- 27. Leonardo DiCaprio
- 16. Alyssa Milano
- 21. Jennifer Connelly
- 15. Salma Hayek
- 38. Bruce Willis
- -. Kelly Preston
- 35. Robert De Niro
Total "people" pages are up dramatically from last time; the #1 spot was
over 4 times as popular as last issue's #1 spot; getting on the list took
twice as many visits as last time. Big rise for a couple of Playmates,
maybe because of search engine placement.
Cary Grant just out of the money.
Matt Damon lurking at #35, waiting for
Good Will Hunting to open. And aside from
Red Skelton,
Sandra Bullock falls the hardest, from #13 to #26.
Huh factor: #154
Izabella Scorupco; #167
Tami Stronach (tied to unexplained interest in
The NeverEnding Story).
by Col Needham
Movies opening in the US from September to December sorted by number of votes
(to December 4):
Movies opening in the US from September to December sorted by average votes
(to December 4):
by Jon Reeves
Just a few of the traditional media outlets that have mentioned us lately:
USA Today.
Entertainment Weekly.
Premiere (USA).
Louisville KY Courier-Journal.
Allenstown PA Morning Call.
Editor & Publisher.
Ciak (Italy).
HomePC [1 Oct].
Newsday [29 Oct, 31 Oct].
The European [11 Sep].
The Jerusalem Post [8 Aug, 1 Oct].
Time International [11 Aug].
PC Magazine (highly recommended).
Boston Globe [24 November]; reprinted in
San Jose Mercury News.
Dayton OH Daily News [31 October]; reprinted in
Minneapolis Star-Tribune and
Philadelphia Daily News.
(Phoenix) Arizona Republic.
Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia).
Yahoo! Internet Life (both
Dec. and
Jan.).
Nuts & Volts.
Newsday.
San Diego Daily Transcript.
Media Daily.
Ad Age.
News.com
Internetnews.com.
Computer Shopper.
Globe and Mail (Canada).
We've also won several new awards. See
selections from the gallery here.
cmc.net Site of the Week.
Internet Treasure Hunt Bureau.
News-Herald (SE Michigan) Cool Link.
Cool Central Site of the Hour (glossary).
Los Angeles Times Pick.
Mining Company World Film Guide.
We're also nominated again this year for a
Webby Award in the Film
category. Please vote for us again.
Our good friend Greg Bulmash's WASHED-UPdate was mentioned in:
Newsday [11 November].
A NewsBytes item referring to his fictional evil twin, Dave, showed up in:
Palm Beach FL Interactive.
by Jon Reeves
This is a regular section giving information about the current size
and growth of the IMDb. We receive between 50,000 and 75,000 additions
every week (to all lists, not just those in the totals below) from
thousands of users all over the world.
Number of filmography entries: 1,977,522
Number of people covered: 525,321
Number of movies covered: 128,456
Size of the database (Mb): 183
Recent milestones:
- 500 awards known
- 500 titles with recommendations
- 2500 crew completion entries
- 5000 tag lines
- 5000 titles with literature entries
- 5000 titles with soundtrack entries
- 7500 name URL entries
- 10,000 rec.arts.movies.reviews
- 25,000 titles with plot summaries
- 50,000 composer entries
- 50,000 guest appearances
- 75,000 producers
- 100,000 technical data entries
- 125,000 movies
- 150,000 genre entries
- 500,000 people
This is a regular section listing some enhancements we're currently
looking at. Please bear in mind that some of these may take quite
a while to come to fruition or even fail to materialize because the
original volunteer decides not to proceed.
- outline list: a "one line" plot summary, short enough to display
on the main title page.
- a list of "influential scenes"... the scenes that launched a thousand
spoofs, became the director's trademark, changed cinema forever,
launched a star.
- general support for alternate titles in languages other than
English and the language of the producing country(s).
- a movie recommendation service that will use your vote records to
suggest other movies you might enjoy. Initially available via an
E-mail interface. Time to check you're up-to-date with your voting!
Academy Awards and Oscar are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences. UNIX and X Window System are registered trademarks
of The Open Group. The WASHED-UPdate is a trademark of Greg Bulmash. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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