IMDb Officially Launches Redesign with Revamped Name Pages After Beta Testing
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has undergone a website overhaul following a beta rollout for the redesign.
IndieWire can exclusively confirm the enhanced IMDb name pages for more than 11 million celebrities, filmmakers, and crew members. The rollout launched November 30 worldwide.
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An essential aggregate data hub for filmography, upcoming projects, and trivia, IMDb has proposed a change to its layout, mostly affecting chronological listings for résumés as well as giving the “Known For” section a new prominence. Each page previously prompted site visitors to click to a previewed version of the update, writing in a pop-up, “For a limited time, take a sneak peek at the new, in-progress version of this page.” The preview ended in August 2022.
The updated name page experience is designed to enhance the discovery and navigation of entertainment content on IMDb and was guided by feedback and suggestions from customers during a multi-month public beta, per an official press statement.
“We are grateful to all the customers around the world who provided feedback and suggestions during our public beta. The experience that is now live for all customers to experience and enjoy was guided by their feedback,” IMDb’s founder and CEO Col Needham said in a statement shared with IndieWire.
Specific updates to the IMDb enhanced name page experience include the following: the addition of poster images to the credits section of name pages for easier visual identification of each title; new tools to filter and sort an individual’s credits based on the type of project, including podcasts and music videos; instant access to information about each title in an individual’s credits, including the trailer, genre, running time, plot, rating, and theatrical, streaming, broadcast, and DVD availability; a convenient option to add titles in a professional’s credits to a customers’ IMDb Watchlist; and customers can now submit their user rating for titles they have seen directly from the credit section of IMDb name pages.
The new pages are available in nine languages, operate across screen sizes from small mobile to large desktop, and offer improved accessibility.
IMDb and its later subscriber counterpart IMDbPro stemmed from a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group “rec.arts.movies” in 1990 and moved to the Internet in 1993. Amazon purchased IMDb.com in 1998 and currently operates the platform.
IMDbPro can be accessed with an annual fee of $149.99, with the ability for actors, crew members, and industry executives to post their own résumés and upload headshots. The membership also allows users to see contact information for industry insiders. In January 2019, IMDb launched an ad-supported streaming platform Freedive, which was later rebranded to IMDbTV and recently announced as Freevee in April.
As of October 2022, IMDb has more than 200 million monthly visitors. The site offers a searchable database of hundreds of millions of data items including more than 11 million movies, TV and entertainment programs, and more than 11 million celebrities, filmmakers and crew members.
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