Finding Movies Showtimes In Your Area Made Easy
The recent launch of two search engines will make it easier for Indians to look up movie timings in their area, though both take quite different approaches.
With Samfra, you can search for movie timings and locations for specific movies across 6 cities (Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi) in India, can rate the movies and leave reviews, and view u
pcoming movies. The site also allows you to search for movies via genre such as English Movies, Action Movies, etc. One interesting feature is the Upcoming movies feature which allows you to view the movies that due for release. Clicking on the “Book ticket” link for a movie takes you to the website of the multiplex where the movie is playing.
Google Movies on the other hand gives you the option search for movies playing in a particular city and sort the rankings by Cinema distance, Film Popularity and Film Title. I am not sure how the Cinema Distance feature works, given that the first result was a location near Opera House while I am in Andheri. The second result was Andheri, the third was Bhiwandi, fourth Thane and so on - in short all over the place. Once the cinemas and movies playing in the cinemas are displayed, you can then click on the movie name to view the list of cinemas where it is playing. Surprisingly, there is no option to add a review. One interesting feature is where it gives listings upto 3 days in advance.
The number of cinema halls covered by both the search engines currently seem to be limited. I think we can expect a lot more features - maps, etc. to be integrated soon.
Filed under: Ideas & Innovations, Startups