IMDb Movie Database Turns 25

Screenshot of the site

The Internet has existed for so long that some sites have “silver” anniversaries. October 17 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Internet Movie Database . This favorite movie fans site began its journey in usenet-groups, and now remains the most comprehensive database of films and one of the most visited Internet resources in the world.

In 1990, it all started with a post in one of the usenet groups “rec.arts.movies” called “Oh, those eyes”, in which programmer Colin Needham [ Colin Needham ] collected his list of actresses with beautiful eyes. People picked up the idea and began to post their lists of films and actors, made up according to their preferences. Gradually, the idea began to turn into a kind of database, where different people kept different lists (list of actors, list of directors, etc.).
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By the end of the year, there were already more than 10,000 films and serials on the lists, with cross-references to the actors and directors employed in them. October 17, 1990, Needham posted a group of scripts he developed that allows him to search for information in the lists he had compiled. And although it was not a site, and this collection was called “rec.arts.movies movie database” this date is considered to be the beginning of the IMDb activity.

In 1993, Needham designed the data and scripts in the form of a full-fledged site. The site has been written and is still working on Perl scripts. The site was managed by the programmer with the help of selected assistants, and all willing users could add and correct the database. In 1996, Needham officially registered and formed the company as a commercial company.

The team that worked on the site was supported by selling ads on its pages, but by the year 98 it became clear that this was not enough for normal operation, and Needham sold the site to Jeff Bezos on Amazon.

The condition for the sale was to maintain control over the management of the programmer and his loyal team, whose members were finally able to devote themselves entirely to the work on the site. Amazon had the opportunity to advertise unreservedly the films and other products related to the film industry presented in the store.

In 2002, the IMDbPro service appeared, intended for professionals in the film industry. This was announced at one of the main events of the industry, the Sundance Film Festival. IMDbPro includes more detailed information about members of the film industry, including contacts of film companies, managers and agents.

In 2006, the base for television series was supplemented by the possibility of a separate list of information on each of the episodes. According to Needham, this was the biggest change in the data model in the entire history of the project. The number of works stored in the database immediately jumped from 485 thousand to 755 thousand.

In 2008, the site launched the first version in another language, German IMDb.de

One of the most popular features of the site is to work with a movie rating. The final score is calculated according to a special scheme, in which the votes of “regularly voting” registered users are taken into account. The specific mechanism for determining regularity is specifically kept secret. The site maintains numerous lists of the best films, including the main “Top 250”, in which the film “Escape from the Shoushenk” holds primacy for many years.

In 2015, the site listed more than 3.4 million works and 6.7 million people employed in the film industry. The site has more than 60 million users. He is constantly in the list of the 50 most visited sites on the Internet according to Alexa.