14 DAY TRIAL // Get more from IMDB
We've all come to rely on the fact that IMDB (Internet Movie Database) has become one of the biggest, most renowned and practical movie websites that are currently out there. It not only talks about movies, but it also gives useful feedback to the numerous users who are indeed interested in the cinema, but don't necessarily know where to start.
IMDB-GRAB is one of those useful new tools that let you grab information from the useful Web site and put it in a workable format. Specifically it lets you manipulate the way you see and use the data rather than having you go online and cut/paste what you need.
What it does
Aside from letting you browse the Web site in another format, IMDB-GRAB also gives you a number of options that help the avid movie fan easily and quickly search, identify and prioritize movies by their own methodology rather than IMDB's.
IMDB-GRAB gives you the same information from the online searches with support for the Cover, BigCover, Title, Year, Genre, Score, Votes, Cast, CastRole (Both Cast and Role), Plot, Longplot, Director(s), Writer(s), Runtime, Country(s), Language(s), Color, Recommendations, AKA (Also Known As), Top250, Bottom100, IMDB-URL, IMDB-Nr, Tagline, SoundMix, OnDVD, OnVHS, Soundtrack, Certifications, MPAA, Individual Country Certifications (Cert_UK, Cert_US etc), User Comment, User, Comment Summary, Close Matches (Titles that almost matched when doing search) and a few more things.
Aside from these comfortable views, you're still able to get functionality out of the program because of its few extra features. A useful thing I found was the quick export into an Excel document. This sure beats cutting/pasting and reprioritizing. You can even log in using your IMDB user name for some of the more 'adult titles' from IMDB.
You get a Want/Have list that you can add onto whenever you feel like and you can customize the fields that you search for. You can also specify which fields you want to have included in your searches.
I also thought that a pretty cool little add-on was the random movie grabber. You can grab a completely random IMDB movie, or you can even specify it to come out of your WANT/Have lists. This is a pretty fun way to search for movies.
Some Hiccups
Although this is one of the more useful and practical programs that I've seen lately, I still had some trouble with it in some departments. If you don't already know how to input the title in your 'Want List' and 'Have List' you're going to get a lot of things that don't match up with the movies you're already viewing. Before learning the naming criteria, I had about twenty some odd movies in my list, but when I wanted to see if my searches matched up with my list, I had zero matches.
It would be great if the naming criteria broadened its scope slightly in order to adapt to how other people want to name their movies (and it would also be great if it told you how to name them before you go in and start renaming all the movies you had previously entered).
Some things that could make this program a bit easier to work with would have to be the main interface. By that I don't mean how it looks, but more how it interacts with my mouse. I'd constantly be closing numerous windows from wanting to cut/paste a hyperlink and instead being redirected to that exact site. It just became a hassle afterward.
I'd also love to see them enable wheel scrolling (please enable wheel scrolling, it's a huge time-saver).
The Good
Along with the movie that you search for, you get a cover of what the movie case looks like, an ungodly amount of fields filled with information and the ability to manipulate that information any way you choose. It's a great way to form your own movie lists without the hassle of too much copying and pasting.
It has a random movie feature that's fun to play around with and it can export everything to Excel format. Also has a good link to Amazon for the movie you've selected if you want to ship it right then and there.
The Bad
I honestly had a little trouble with the interface. I'm not saying it was ugly to look at, quite the contrary, everything was labeled and set out in a very intuitive manner, but when I tried clicking on a random spot, or scrolling and copying, I really had some trouble with that. It just wasn't as user friendly as it could have been. You've also read the rest of my pet peeves above.
The Truth
If you're an avid movie buff or just enjoy classifying your movies in your own way, now you can easily do just that. IMDB-GRAB is practical, and has a lot of things you can use to prioritize your own movies easily. Oh, that's right, this program is free so enjoy it while it lasts.
Check out the screenshots below.
