The founder of one of the most successful websites in the world has been unveiled as a self-confessed technology geek who still runs the website from his former family home in Bristol.
Colin Needham, from Stoke Gifford, began the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in 1990 as a hobby, and now the website is the 42nd most popular on the planet, attracting some 57million unique users every month.
Such is the power and influence it wields, IMDb - which has information on over 3.2million actors and industry professionals and a database of more than 1.5million films – has the ability to launch and crush Hollywood careers.
Film geek: Colin Needham, 43, started IMDb as a hobby in 1990 and it has become the 42nd most popular website in the world
Mr Needham, 43, confessed he never expected his obsession with films to grow in to the Internet's most comprehensive source of information on films and television.
'I have always done this because I love film,’ said the movie buff - who owned his first computer in 1979, at the age of 12.
‘The idea is to point people who like films in the right direction. I wanted to share my love of films and help people find things they might want to watch themselves.
'My wife and I still love going to the cinema and have this tradition of going to see a film together every Tuesday lunchtime.
'I love the idea of being in the cinema with all these people who haven't got a clue who I am but half of them have probably decided to go and see the film because they have read about it on my website.'
He proudly admits that he was one of the first people in the country to have an e-mail address which dates back to 1985.
'I have always been into technology and film and I can still remember going to see Stars Wars. It had a massive effect on me,' he said.
'When I was a teenager I was writing video games. I used to sell them to computer companies and that kept me in all the things a teenager needs, like clothes and 12-inch singles.'
After studying at Leeds University, he moved to Bristol and took a job as a software researcher with Hewlett Packard.
At the same time he began to compile his own database of film facts which would later evolve into the internet site.
His film obsession peaked in the mid-1990s when he was watching over 1,000 films a year. He would record the credits at the end of a film and then note down every detail.
A chance e-mail encounter in 1989 with a film fan in California prompted Mr Needham to publish his own personal database online.
The list was published once a month and fellow fans could log on and download it to their own computers. The first set of software was published in October 1990 and IMDb was born.
Source & more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1342663/IMDb-run-self-confessed-geek-Colin-Needham-house-Bristol.html
Colin Needham, from Stoke Gifford, began the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in 1990 as a hobby, and now the website is the 42nd most popular on the planet, attracting some 57million unique users every month.
Such is the power and influence it wields, IMDb - which has information on over 3.2million actors and industry professionals and a database of more than 1.5million films – has the ability to launch and crush Hollywood careers.
Film geek: Colin Needham, 43, started IMDb as a hobby in 1990 and it has become the 42nd most popular website in the world
Mr Needham, 43, confessed he never expected his obsession with films to grow in to the Internet's most comprehensive source of information on films and television.
'I have always done this because I love film,’ said the movie buff - who owned his first computer in 1979, at the age of 12.
‘The idea is to point people who like films in the right direction. I wanted to share my love of films and help people find things they might want to watch themselves.
'My wife and I still love going to the cinema and have this tradition of going to see a film together every Tuesday lunchtime.
'I love the idea of being in the cinema with all these people who haven't got a clue who I am but half of them have probably decided to go and see the film because they have read about it on my website.'
He proudly admits that he was one of the first people in the country to have an e-mail address which dates back to 1985.
'I have always been into technology and film and I can still remember going to see Stars Wars. It had a massive effect on me,' he said.
'When I was a teenager I was writing video games. I used to sell them to computer companies and that kept me in all the things a teenager needs, like clothes and 12-inch singles.'
After studying at Leeds University, he moved to Bristol and took a job as a software researcher with Hewlett Packard.
At the same time he began to compile his own database of film facts which would later evolve into the internet site.
His film obsession peaked in the mid-1990s when he was watching over 1,000 films a year. He would record the credits at the end of a film and then note down every detail.
A chance e-mail encounter in 1989 with a film fan in California prompted Mr Needham to publish his own personal database online.
The list was published once a month and fellow fans could log on and download it to their own computers. The first set of software was published in October 1990 and IMDb was born.
Source & more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1342663/IMDb-run-self-confessed-geek-Colin-Needham-house-Bristol.html
