Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Google Businesses The Internet Media Movies

Google Adds Movie Ratings, Times, Reviews 235

Posted by Zonk from the goog-cinema dept.
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.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Google Adds Movie Ratings, Times, Reviews More

Google Adds Movie Ratings, Times, Reviews

Comments Filter:

  • another google innovation (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What I wonder is where Google gets its ratings from, most movie titles always give you results to the IMDB where reviews can be found anyway...

  • Next? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by karthik_r085 ( 775682 )
    Next feature might be Music/Concert shows.
    • Because I would frequent a feature allowing me to search "Music/Concert shows", I have to say that is an excellent idea. But why do you say that might be a feature next, or anytime soon at all?

      I feel that if Google did such a thing, they would have to charge (promoter fees, etc), or they would simply show you to the concert places' websites. Either way, someone has to pay to advertise...and given Google's fame, that would be quite a profitable avenue for them to pursue.

  • Sounds Handy... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by paulschroeder ( 757739 )
    but will it let us know which ones to avoid [sonypictures.com]?

  • Such a Great Way to Market (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PogieMT ( 668493 ) * on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:09AM (#12527444)
    Google's true genius might be the way they add new features...and let it all get advertised by users. Instead of the Yahoo model of cluttering up the main page so much that is unusable, Google just adds a feature--and people find out when they try it, or it ends up on a site like Slashdot

    • Re:Such a Great Way to Market (Score:5, Funny)

      by Col. Klink (retired) ( 11632 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:41AM (#12527579)
      > or it ends up on a site like Slashdot

      Yeah, but how often does *that* happen?

    • Re:Such a Great Way to Market (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @03:00AM (#12527647) Homepage Journal
      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:Such a Great Way to Market (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Jedi Alec ( 258881 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @03:48AM (#12527772)
        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...

        • Re:Such a Great Way to Market (Score:5, Interesting)

          by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @12:57PM (#12529942) Homepage Journal
          And there you have it. Right now, the folks making the decisions are folks that think like us.
          Sorry, but that's standard Geek bigotry. Most web surfers are not "people like us". Most people seem to be pretty tolerant of obnoxious advertising, and the 900 million people who surf the web these days are more representative of society at large, not Geek culture. So it's a little suprising that obnoxious ads are less effective online they they are in other media.

          My theory is this: people are so inundated with advertising that they need a mechanism to filter them out, to keep from getting distracted to death. Most people seem to be adept and creating little cognitive filters to eliminate distraction. (Geeks, by and large, seem to be pretty poor at this -- I've often wondered if there isn't some neurological difference between Geeks and "normal" people.) So most people litterally don't see most of the ads that are thrown at them every day.

          But by trying to make their ads less obnoxious, Google removed all the visual cues that these cognitive filters rely on. Which is why market research indicates that most people don't perceive Google ads as ads, even though they're clearly labeled as such! In other words, Google found a way to get past people's ant-ad wetware -- and found it purely by accident.

        • "Who knows, some day the marketing droids might take over and it's back to the drawing board, but until then..."

          Oh come off it already. When the fuck will Slashdotters realize that just like in EVERY OTHER FUCKING INDUSTRY there are good professionals, and bad professionals.

          Marketing is the same as any other industry. Sure, you have your sleazy people who will do whatever they can to get eyeballs and a buck, but then you have your talented people who know exactly what they're doing, who don't want to al

      • Get yourself the adblock extension for firefox and bid those annoying banners a final farewell
      • 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!

        You're right. Some people [mozdev.org] never learn.

  • Oh, isn't that old? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by presroi ( 657709 ) <neubau@presroi.de> on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:11AM (#12527452) Homepage
    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.
    • Absolutely. In fact, I remember Googling the movie '50 First Dates' and being shocked at the result (note that there was no video synergy). That was when said movie first came out, so that can provide some reference point. There is also synergy with Google maps, as I can roll a map of the nearest theater, as well as get directions on how to get there.
      • EDIT: There was no synergy with Google maps back then, I only had reviews and theater locations.

      • Re:Oh, isn't that old? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by presroi ( 657709 ) <neubau@presroi.de> on Saturday May 14, 2005 @04:50AM (#12527953) Homepage
        Okay, so if you live in the New York, you might actually try the following:

        Use google to find a movie that might be worth the money you will be spending.
        Use google to find a movie theatre that has the movie on schedule.
        Use google's orkut or google's newly aquired dodgeball [dodgeball.com] to find someone to join your movie evening.
        Use google ride [google.com] to order a cab to the movie theatre.
        Use google groups to discuss the result of the evening.

        So, if google was smart, they would enhance their APIs to encourage people to combine different google applications. My first attempt would be something like a google timewaster/blinddate/"hey, I'm new in this town, are there real people around?"/... Or is this something labs.google.com will provide in the next six months? and so on... I'm tired of this "what if google did a, b, c" I would like to do it myself.

  • hmmmm (Score:5, Informative)

    by benna ( 614220 ) <mimenarrator@g m a i l .com> on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:11AM (#12527453) Journal
    This sounds familiar [slashdot.org].
    • Yes, I think the only thing we're seeing now is a minor revision to the service, among others dropping the required "movie:" to get the movie results.

  • Another feature of the search (Score:5, Informative)

    by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:11AM (#12527455) Journal
    Try this search [google.com], or to put it into the search box: "movie:movie". Enter your zip code for a full listing of locally showing movies.
    • I would expect a company like google to use Cinema Source [cinema-source.com] since they are the #1 database clearinghouse of movietime information, that nearly every cinema in America communicates with.

      Unfortunately, they seem to be using some other service which has incomplete records and doesn't even list some of my local theaters.

      Compare for yourself by doing a search on moviefone or yahoo, and then check google.

  • Data collection... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by orion88 ( 834423 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:12AM (#12527459)
    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
    • 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 ? :)

  • Also, you can search by plot!!! (Score:5, Informative)

    by E IS mC(Square) ( 721736 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:14AM (#12527473) Journal
    Even if you dont remember the movie name, you can try searching for plot/key phrases!!

    e.g. searching for Future world [google.com] (or google "movies: future world") comes up with a decent list, with "Twelve Monkeys" on 1st and "Minority Report" as second!

  • Google (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wcitechnologies ( 836709 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:15AM (#12527475)
    If google starts issuing IDs for each user, I wouldn't be suprised if it became more important than a social security number.

  • Bye Bye Fandango (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Salis ( 52373 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:17AM (#12527484) Journal
    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:Bye Bye Fandango (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chiasmus_ ( 171285 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:27AM (#12527519) Journal
      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.
      • 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*.

        I think you've missed the reason; it's because you get to walk right past the line that you pay a dollar over box office. Efficiency has nothing to do with it, they do the same with telephone advance booking here. Because you get to g
      • Walking right past the line is actually pretty nice.

        If you're just concerned about walking past the lines, try and see if your local theatre has one of the automated consoles. Just choose the tickets you want, swipe your credit card, and -- presto! -- instantly printed tickets with no service charge.

        At the Sony Metreon in San Francisco, practically nobody uses the consoles, so there's never a line.
      • And fandango is worth it. Saves me an hour or two of time for popular movies that i can spend having a nice dinner with the family or something else on.

        I pay more for a soda at a CONVENIENCE store than a box store/grocery store, so why wouldn't that apply to other services that offer a CONVENIENCE.

        Just because it's online doesn't mean it's any cheaper to offer than paying someone 6 bucks to site in a "bullet proof box" as last time i checked engineers, sysadmins, webmasters and developers were a LOT more
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • and it works very similarly...here's the result for the same movie: http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=FP-pull-web-t&p= kicking+screaming [yahoo.com]

  • Google SMS (Score:5, Informative)

    by CyberDave ( 79582 ) <davecorder@yaDEBIANhoo.com minus distro> on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:34AM (#12527546)
    I know Google SMS [google.com]has the ability to retrieve movie showtimes for the current day in your area, though I haven't yet found a way to get future movie times (say, what opens tomorrow) through Google SMS (read: I've been too lazy to go read the help and find out).

    I'm rather surprised that it sounds like Google SMS got something before the mainstream Google web did.

    Still, very cool. I *heart* Google.

  • Inconsistent Behaviour (Score:5, Informative)

    by osewa77 ( 603622 ) <naijasms@NOspaM.gmail.com> on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:35AM (#12527555) Homepage
    Typing "Kicking and Screaming" indeed brings out the movie review link, but typing another movie (e.g. 'Closer') does not, unless you include the "movie:" operator (that is, search for "movie:Closer").

    I wonder why this is so but, oh well, Google is all-wise!
  • Has anyone ever bought anything online because of an online (placed, pop-up, ad-sense, or otherwise "targeted") ad?

    Sure, I have purchased lots of stuff online, but I can't say that any content sponsering ad has ever "grabbed" me. Of course, as far as I know, traditional media ads don't affect me either, but I understand research shows that they "work".

    Is it the same with online ads - has the net fallen into being the same as traditional media, with the same statistical influence of ad copy on the masse

    • Of course, as far as I know, traditional media ads don't affect me either, but I understand research shows that they "work".

      You know, I wouldn't say I respond directly to commercials; that is to say, I don't see an ad for Pizza Hut and reach for the phone.

      But I will say this: if I'm on vacation, and I see a Pizza Hut sitting next to something called Big Antonio's Pizza... I'll probably pick door #1.

      And that's probably the advertising at work.
    • I downloaded the Puzzle Pirates demo, which lead directly to a $25 sale two days later, after seeing an ad for it on Penny Arcade. I also bought a Dell after seeing they were having a sale, but I had been planning to buy a Dell for a while and that just made my choice of weekend for the purchase.

  • This is news? (Score:4, Informative)

    by mavantix ( 16356 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:51AM (#12527608) Homepage Journal

    Uh, the Google movie/local search has been working for months! Slashdot link from Feb 23rd here [slashdot.org] In fact, the IMDB link has been there from the start. It amazes me when some parent finds out about Google's "new" 3 month old feature, they think it's new, and news worthy to boot. Whoopty do, next headline: "New feature, Google aggregates data!!" No kidding? As usual, good ol' /. dupe checking works it's magic! :)

    Not to dis Google or anything, but since when is every minuscule innovation on web based portals revolutionary? Endless "betas" and rapid cash burns to develop the next biggest thing is what turned the dot-com boom into a bust. Is Google next? Nah, there's no competition in the search engine market. Hehe.

    Sure, people love Google, I love Google, but this stuff is something Yahoo has been doing for 10 years and people are atingle over it like its new technology!? Innovation only leads to more complex interfaces, and the simplicity of Google's very nature will only become bulkier and bloated the more of this "crap" they add. What, links to outside review services just weren't enough? Creature Feep if you ask me.

  • Good Timing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Fletch ( 6903 ) * <fletch AT pobox DOT com> on Saturday May 14, 2005 @02:53AM (#12527615) Homepage
    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.
    • Well, not exactly. The "movie:" keyword was a story as you pointed out.

      However, this story points out that that keyword is no longer needed, if you just search for a movie title of a currently playing movie, it comes up with that info in the results.
  • That is just great. Moviefone doesn't list one theatre in my area. I always have to go to that movie threatre companies page to see it's listings.

    So long AOL. Competition is a good thing.
  • One feature I miss out on movie sites that have local listing times is comparative pricing. Everything else on the net has it, it seem, why not websites that accept theatre listings?

    My Regal Cinema down the street dropped the matinee times from any movie starting before 5pm to 3pm and upped the price from 5.50 to 7.00 - the regular price from 8.00 to 9.25 while some theatres down the street (older) are down to 4.50 regular - I'd like to know these things w/o checking out every stupid theatre in the area.

  • Eh? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by teknokracy ( 660401 )
    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

  • really?! (Score:2, Funny)

    by nilbog ( 732352 )
    I even heard you can do web searches on google now too!

    This was covered on slashdot in like, 1970 when it first happened...

  • That would save me at least 4 mouse clicks.

    =brian

    =cows are strangely attracted to me=

  • But Google News is a Beta? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Mutant ( 167716 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @05:54AM (#12528155) Homepage
    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.
  • Either someone at Google did some tinkering, or this is an amazing coincidence:

    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    1hr 50min - Comedy/SciFi/Fantasy - 42 reviews

  • Subject (Score:4, Funny)

    by Legion303 ( 97901 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @08:28AM (#12528561) Homepage
    In other up-to-the-minute news, Slashdot adds the ability to post comments.
  • No movie critics were harmed or even used in the making of this page. Haha, gotta love their sense of humor
  • Surely they have been doing that for ages?
  • I've noticed an interesting pattern here on Slashdot. The editors are obviously notorious for duplicate stories (although, in my opinion, they have improved over the last few years). But a couple weeks after posting an article [slashdot.org] about a new Google feature, someone independently discovers it and the Slashdot editors feel the need to discuss it again. I only point this out because they did it not one month ago with search by numbers [slashdot.org] (original [slashdot.org]).
  • Set your location (I used my ZIP code.) Then do a search with just "movie:" -- it shows what's playing in my local area.

    Cool.

    -ch
  • I just wanted to point out that Yahoo! has the exact same thing going on, except for the zip code box on the search results page.

Slashdot Top Deals

It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.

Close