Movie Social Networking Sites
With the emergence of social networking sites, there has also been a small influx of a niche in this market - movies. Each one has its pros and cons as they relate to the future and where to go in the future. Below is a detailed look at each one.
IMDB.com: The perfect movie information site. It has virtually every director, actor, writer, movie, tv movie, year released known to man. The site is quoted more times than any other movie site. Often, the information found here is considered law. Its social network side of things is a little blah and lacks a lot to be desired. It has a few login features and some list generation, but other than that it is nothing to get excited about - especially something you and your friends would want to get involved with. The overall outlook of the site is incredibly promising. It has everything that is needed for a movie site, and could easily incorporate a few more interactions with the social side of things.
RottenTomatoes.com: A monster movie review site. It has all the critical reviews compiled for each movie. It does a great job of getting people into or out of the theater with an idea of how good the movie will be. It also provides some info for release dates, actors etc. But, for social networking it lacks a little something. It does have some movie list functions and some message boards to keep people interested in coming back signed in. But, there is no substance or nothing really pushing you to interact.
Flixster.com: A newer true social networking site dedicated to movies. Users can do all sorts of stuff as well as recommend movies, rate movies, review them, and talk with friends. The movie information is there as well. But, it doesn't push you to come back to the site. It has some nice features, but most users frequent the site for a short time never to return. It does have a facebook application, but how much it draws users to the site is unknown. Some call this the myspace of movie social networking - this was the first.
YMDB.com (shompy): Old, outdated, and not frequented much. It has one feature - movie lists. Users can fairly easily create a top movie list, explain why they think it is good, then chat with a few friends who may stumble across their list. It has no movie reviews, no true social interaction, and nothing intuitive. It is a one and done site that never really generated revenue. No one knows how it is able to keep a float. It is possible to get some knowledge about non English films.
Spout.com: This little site has a decent amount of movie information and some cool tools. It finally has some type of movie review feature although all it really is is a blog attached to it. The design is nice and the people seem nice as well. It lacks social interaction and a bug free site. I enjoyed looking for movie via an instant movie search, but it was buggy. It had some good movie list functions and a way to look at hot or not films. In the end though it was a confusing site that most will not go back to many times.
FilmCrave.com: A very young but ambitious social networking site. It lacks a strong movie database (though it looks like it is growing), some social interaction, and a solid heart. What it does have is almost everything else. Strong movie reviews, intuitive movie list creation, enough social networking, and potential. It is less than a month old by the looks of it so it is not known where it will go or grow, but everything looks promising.
YahooMovies.com: A very large part of yahoo is yahoo movies. They have movie reviews, movie lists, recommendations, critics, and number ones. They pretty much have it all. It is not focused or very intuitive. It is a site that can be used once in a while or very often. It has great movie data but as far as social interaction it may be too spread out to get users to enjoy the company of others. It looks like it is mostly used for movie reviews.
As you can see, most sites have good and bad points. It is up to you to decide if any or all of them are worth joining. I find it easier to join all of them then come back to the ones that I feel like I need to come back to. Some day, one of these sites will do all of them combined better than anyone else. Currently, it looks like it could be flixster or filmcrave.
by Alex Olson
Keyword : Movie Social Networking Sites
