Google Gives Mobile Users a Better Movie Search Experience

November 25, 2009

Google has launched a mobile version of its new search results for movies. This comes just in time for the holidays, so bored people can find some entertainment while their significant others are out shopping on Black Friday or watching the games.

If you go to google.com on an iPhone, Palm WebOS, or Android -powered device, just search for "movies" and hit the "more movies" link. There, you can browse movies, and theaters, and find trailers, posters, reviews, etc.

"Our new movie listings page now includes buttons to play trailers right on your phone, ratings and categories, movie posters, upcoming showtimes, and a concise list of the nearest theaters and their distances from you," says Nick Fey, User Experience Designer on the Google mobile team. "We keep information on this page succinct so you can quickly browse through shows and showtimes to help you decide which movie to see. If you want more details about a specific movie, just touch the poster or movie title and you'll see our new movie details page that has a synopsis of the movie, a more detailed list of showtimes, the cast and crew, and pictures."

"When you browse by theater, you'll see a map of the theaters nearest to you," adds Fey. "Then, just tap on the link to any particular theater to see what shows are playing there and what times they're playing. Of course, you can also search for specific movies or theaters and see their listings right away. Try searching for recent movies like 'New Moon' or 'Where the Wild Things Are' or search for 'glendale 18 los angeles'."

Currently the new features are only available in the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand (in English). Google does not mention an extension to more locations or languages, but the company is usually pretty good about branching in this area with its products and features.

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Google Makes Improvements to Movie Showtime Searches

November 12, 2009

Google has launched some new improvements to its movie showtimes search feature. These include more movie pages, genre filters, and a new map view.

If you search for a movie and click the "more theaters" link in the showtimes listing, you will be taken to a more thorough page about that movie, including more showtimes, reviews, trailers, photos, etc. You can also see a list of new genre filters to search by on the left-hand side of the screen.

If you go to google.com/movies, you can find a list of all the theaters and showtimes in your area. The map view feature lets you see nearby theaters playing specific films.

It is worth noting that Microsoft's Bing search engine already has very similar features when you search for movies on there. It utilizes MSN movies, and has movie pages with trailers, reviews, photos, etc. It also has a map view feature. Google appears to have it beat on the genre listings feature, however.