Happy Belated Birthday to IMDb

If anyone deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, it's the creators of the Internet Movie Database. Can you imagine how many arguments have been settled because of that site? And would you believe that it's been around 19 years as of this past Saturday?

I think one of the reasons that I married my husband is that he introduced me to IMDb about 9 years ago. Prior to that, I spent many nights sitting in bed going, "Uggghhhh, what do I know that guy from? Was he in Fame? Or Guiding Light? Oh my god, this is going to drive me crazy." I have a very specific memory of trying to find out who played Momma in Throw Momma from the Train and doing pathetic searches on, like, AOL or something. So compared to those fruitless endeavors, using IMDb was downright magical.

IMDb began on October 17, 1990 when founder and CEO Col Needham published a series of scripts that allowed users to search lists of movie credits that were compiled by a USENET group called "rec.arts.movies."

Mind you, web browsers weren't even available until 1991 so this is hardcore early internet business.

Over the years, IMDb has added many features and opened "pro" accounts that are invaluable tools for people in the movie and TV industries. And as far as I'm concerned, you're no one until you have an IMDb page.

(Psst! Did you know that yours truly has a page? Check it out! QED: I'm awesome.)

I highly recommend checking out IMDb's post about their history. It's really fascinating stuff and reminds us what an amazing tool we have right here in front of us that gives us access to almost any kind of information we could want. And, in the case of IMDb, helps us to sleep better.