Netflix Wishlist: IMDB Crosslinks

Add to my Netflix Wishlist (that is, the list of features I wish Netflix had, not the list of movies I wish I had): links from IMDB entries to the respective Netflix page (or, better yet, “add to Netflix queue” directly from IMDB). Links back to IMDB from Netflix would also be nice.

This seems like something that would be relatively easy to do with a Mozilla plugin. In general, Netflix would be a prime candidate for a developer/hobbyist ecology similar to that which has grown up around Amazon’s API. The only examples I could find were this Perl module and this Moveable-Type plugin. More development along these lines could be a key advantage for Netflix to preserve its now incumbent position in the market. (Does anyone have any local video stores left? Ours closed down about a year ago.)

Update: James points to an impressive list of Greasemonkey/Netflix scripts, two of which seem to do the job: Netflix links in IMDB, IMDB links in Netflix. Another featuer I’ve been looking for: Netflix Ratings Granulizer (allows partial stars in ratings). Thanks, Lazyweb! (Note that these sorts of screen-scraping hacks inevitably break when the content provider modifies its presentation; an open API would obviously be preferable).

4 comments

  1. Steve Laniel Apr 4

    We still have Hollywood Express, whose website gives it national pretensions but which is, I’m pretty sure, just a Cambridge institution.

    I found your website via Universal Hub.

  2. James Apr 4

    Sounds like a job for Greasemonkey http://userscripts.org/scripts/search?q=netflix

  3. Josh Triplett Apr 5

    You don’t need a full-blown Mozilla plugin for this; this sounds like the perfect use case for a Greasemonkey script.

  4. Anonymous Jun 29

    A new script was recently posted that adds links to both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes pages from all Netflix Movie pages.

    http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/10079

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