An ode to IMDb.com, Internet Movie Database (AP)

There are things that make modern life truly special: Tivo, Charles Barkley, SpongeBob SquarePants, etc.

High on that list also has to be IMDb.com, the Internet Movie Database.

Many broad statements have been made about the splendor of the Internet and what the digital revolution means to our future. We can share information like never before, communicate in radically new ways, blah blah blah.

To me, the greatest uses for the Internet are, in order, watching videos of theatrical mammals (like the "dramatic chipmunk"), looking up the name of a song in a TV commercial and using IMDb to remember the name of that guy who played Magua in "The Last of the Mohicans" (Wes Studi).

IMDb dates back to the early days of the Internet. It was begun as a hobby by a handful of movie geeks as a newsgroup on a Usenet bulletin board.

Founded by a British computer programmer named Col Needham, a very early incarnation launched in October 1990. In 1998, it was acquired as a subsidiary by Amazon.com.

By well over a decade, the site predates the "Web 2.0" era of YouTube and Facebook -- it is emphatically old school. Thankfully, IMDb hasn't tried to update itself with a social networking component, which just about every site has done in the last few years. Instead, it's stayed true to its simple mission of supplying just about anything you'd want to know about just about every movie. Ever.

The site boasts more than one million titles and at least 2.6 million names. Most every movie and TV show is listed with the complete cast and crew. It's a reservoir of information including box office numbers, reviews, trivia, trailers, quotes, soundtrack listings, mistakes, and much more.

None of this should be news to anyone. If I ever meet someone who's unfamiliar with IMDb, I usually go slack-jawed and mutter something about Magua. Hardly a day goes by where it doesn't help my recall of a movie director's filmography or an actor's wayward choice of roles in the `80s.

It's occurred to me, before the advent of the iPhone, that there should be IMDb kiosks everywhere so that when you can't remember the name of Alexander Payne's first major movie ("Citizen Ruth"), you don't have to halt conversation for twenty minutes while you bang your head against the bar and swear "I know this!"

The user ratings for films can often be a reasonable gauge for its popularity (the site also keep tracks of the "Bottom 100" and "Top 250" titles by ranking). For an aspiring actor, having your name on IMDb is an achievement in itself.

There have been two major additions to the site in the last decade. In 2002, the for-pay IMDbPro sought to make it a destination for entertainment professions looking for contacts for celebrities and companies. In 2006, it added full episode detail for TV series so that you can know exactly who is in specific episodes.

There's even a feature I until recently wasn't aware of. At the bottom of everyone's page, you can cross reference two people. For example, on Robert Redford's page, you can plug in the late Sydney Pollack to find their many collaborations. (This is an obvious boon to playing the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.)

IMDb remains a uniquely pleasurable destination in an Internet landscape increasingly crowded with outsized promises of "connectivity." IMDb's raw utility is standing the test of time.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE -- What Web site would inspire you to do something as ridiculous as write an ode to it? E-mail AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle at jcoyle(at)ap.org