A story that's being reported with a sweeping sense of exasperation: the Internet Movie Database has finally entered Web 2.0 and will now be streaming full-length tv shows, movies, short films and movie trailers largely hosted by Hulu.
But this vexed coverage fails to take into account that imdb.com has been a user-generated content site since before the term "user generated content" even existed. Since 2002 the site's 17 million registered users (monitored by a staff of about 20) have created a site that has become as much a professional resource for producers, casting directors and writers as well as a popular destination site for movie discussion. And really, if the word "database" appears in your company's title, web trendiness probably isn't be a top priority.
However, today's launch was an extremely necessary upgrade in the arena of movie trailers. Whereas before imdb.com relied on a series of partnerships with sketchy third party video sites (that often didn't even direct to the right footage), the site will now host more trailers on their own site with a 15-second advertising pre-roll.
Fifteen seconds of ads for two minutes of content might feel like a bit of overkill now, but with Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently declaring 2009 to be the year YouTube becomes profitable, inline advertising will undoubtedly become standard soon enough.
The imdb.com video deal also includes a yet to be defined partnership with Sony Pictures Television and CBS.
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