Google Adds Movie Ratings, Times, Reviews

Mike Skweir writes " I was going to take my daughter to the movies this afternoon and I wanted to find out more about the movie 'Kicking & Screaming'... so I Googled it. To my surprise the following response occurred . When I followed the link, it actually gave me several reviews, movie ratings and the ability to search for a theatre in my area." Once you've entered your zip code, it will also tell you what movies are playing in your area.

Oh, isn't that old?

[presroi]

I remember on spotting this feature (which I am unable to use since google decided only to support the other side of the bath tub) some month ago.

I might add that there is some (currently unused) synergy to http://video.google.com/ [google.com] . There is no reason not to extend google video to movie texts.

Data collection...

[orion88]

I just wonder what they're doing with all of this data. Between zip code and links visited, you could assemble some pretty interesting demographics.

-Ben

Bye Bye Fandango

[Salis]

Say Good Bye to Mr. Fandango....

The only thing it does now is sell tickets, but who really wants to buy movie tickets online?

Onward Google, onward! Search ... Everything.

Re:Rate web pages

[Chiasmus_]

They should allow people to rate and review websites. That would make a little more sense, don't you think? Plus, it would be original.

Considering that probably Google's prime concern is creating a tamper-proof search system, I don't think they'd invite a system that practically screamed "Please tamper with our rating system by posting rave reviews for your brochure site for herbal Viagra."

...unless, of course, the reviews were presented in such a way that they didn't affect which web sites people decided to click on - in which case the whole rating system would be little more than a waste of resources.

Re:Bye Bye Fandango

[Chiasmus_]

but who really wants to buy movie tickets online?

I would. Walking right past the line is actually pretty nice. But I don't want to pay a dollar over box office for the privilege. Since Fandango is *more* efficient than paying teenagers six bucks an hour to hand out tickets from those little bulletproof booths, it should cost *less*.

Weird how that concept has been lost on the big chains so far.

Good Timing

[Fletch]

It was just this afternoon that some co-workers and I were discussing how awful Slashdot has gotten about posting ad "stories" and dupes, and now here's another duplicate story.

I understand that some dupes slip through because certain topics can be hard to search for, but with the first Google movies story [slashdot.org] showing up as the topmost search result for "Google movies [slashdot.org]," how is it even possible not to find that this story was already posted?

I had read Slashdot almost daily for years, and subscribed for months. These days, thanks to the drastic downtown in quality, I'm down to visiting just a few times a week, and haven't added to my subscription in a year.

Re:Such a Great Way to Market

[fm6]

It is true that viral marketing [wikipedia.org] is very effective. But I don't think they're deliberately trying to do that. It's just that their haphazard product development process makes a proper "feature launch" impossible!

It's curious how Google repeatedly stumbles into extreme success. Early on, they decided to go with low-key text-based ads, not because they thought they'd be more successful than banner ads, but because the people making the decision hated pages with banner ads. We all know how that turned out -- it's the main reason Google turned a profit as early as it did.

Jeez, as I'm typing this there is this really annoying animated New Egg banner at the top of my Slashdot window. Some people never learn!

Re:Data collection...

[Adult film producer]

thats why it's a good idea to delete your google cookie at least once a week. But 99% of people won't do that, in the meantime google will know more about you in 5 years than your wife/family/dog ever will.

How many of those impulse searches you've made on google will tell your friends about ? :)

Re:Rate web pages

[mike518]

not a bad idea, just it would add a bunch of extra space needed for the review icons or text, and quite frankly i like the simplicity of google, thats what made it great in the first place, right?

little things like the movie reviews, basic calculator and answers to simple questions like "population of country X" are all great, but anything more -- esspecially in the way of code for EVERY web page would both be bulky and in my opinion detracting from the original concept of simplicity.

Re:Such a Great Way to Market

[Jedi Alec]

but because the people making the decision hated pages with banner ads.

And there you have it. Right now, the folks making the decisions are folks that think like us. Google still has a really geeky aura surrouding it. Who knows, some day the marketing droids might take over and it's back to the drawing board, but until then...

Eh?

[teknokracy]

I don't understand why some of these features don't make it to Google Canada as well. I know the US is the US, but Canada isnt that much different (same movie premieres, same movies, etc etc etc) So why not have a simple version of this on Google.ca, maybe it will link up with the TWO (yes, count them) movie chains in Canada and tell us the showtimes :D

Re:Nice to see BIAS for endless Google crap.

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I still use Yahoo maps, but the difference is that Google's version is a lot less cluttered, less confusing and easier to use. In short, they are doing the same thing everyone else is doing, but better. The only reason I don't use Google maps is they didn't have direction finding last I checked.

Google is doing a lot of stuff that is already done by other companies, but with a better look, more sensible layout and overall better ease of use.

This is, afterall, my opinion, but it seems to be similar to those elsewhere in this forum.

I just hope that they continue to improve everything they've already established as well, and they don't overextend themselves.

But Google News is a Beta?

[The Mutant]

Earlier on /. I'd read the reason Google News still carried the Beta label was according to the TOS of most (if not all) news providers, distribution for commerical use was prohibited.

This clearly leverages off Google News, so somethings not making sense. There isn't a Beta label on Google Reviews even though it sources from their news feed. How can they use these reviews without a beta label, if the remainder of the newspaper requires it? How long before these reviews start to carry text ads? And does this mean the Beta label will be dropped off Google News as well?

In any case, this wouldn't be much use to me as I primarly use IMDB as a driver for selecting movies. I find critics working for the mainstream media are, well, just too mainstream for my tastes. I get more value from my peer's opinions than some overpaid critic.

Yeah, and now "THEY" know your zip code.

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

Zonk: Once you've entered your zip code, it will also tell you what movies are playing in your area.

zetasmack: google knows all. do not question.

Today you've entered your zip code into the largest database in the history of the human species, and it's been cross-correlated with the Google cookie on your hard drive.

Tomorrow you're gonna enter what? Your phone number? Your home address? Your SSN? Your vote for president?

Some day you people are gonna yearn for an earlier, simpler time, when people could reasonably expect to enjoy a right to anonymity.

PS: What is this "scirusgoogle [google.com]" cookie I have?

google knows all. do not question.

[falconwolf]

Shouldn't that be Yahoo! knows all? Afterall they've been doing this for years. Speaking of Google and Yahoo!, Yahoo! was one of the original investers in Google before the IPO.

Falcon

Re:Yeah, and now "THEY" know your zip code.

[BinLadenMyHero]

when people could reasonably expect to enjoy a right to anonymity.

What? Does Google steal your zip code without your consent?
No, you give your zip code if you choose to do it. You can still choose to use the Google movie service without giving your zip code; or even not to use it at all.

Re:Rate web pages

[Chiasmus_]

[i]Actually, if they just made the image a question that you'd have to answer (an easy one), I think that would go a long way to make it harder for bots to get it right.[/i]

Now that is [i]interesting[/i].

But consider that there's big money at stake here. If a company like Yahoo complied ten thousand images with simple questions on them ("What animal says 'quack'?"), I can pretty much guarantee that spam companies would simply respond by hiring ten teenagers to catalog a thousand questions each over the course of a week and recreate Yahoo's database.

I'm not sure how one would get around this problem. And, of course, there's a language-barrier problem, too: a Japanese person might have good enough English to want to use the website for a legitimate purpose, but might not know that we think ducks say 'quack' (because, let's face it, they don't).