Filmaps.com: Movies Come To Online Social Networking
“Share and discover film locations” is this site’s motto and that’s exactly what Filmaps does. It’s a Google Maps mashup that combines movies with social networking.
Filmaps basically allows for movie searches by title or location including the interesting ability to find out what movies were made at a specific location. For instance, looking for movies by title and then narrowing by location might show you that San Francisco has a theater playing the film you’re looking for. Switching the search and looking at what films were made in San Francisco will show you Dirty Harry.
Once you find a movie (or movies), you can leave comments about the film for others to read, send Tweets (each film has a permalink), and otherwise share you film finds with friends. Users can ad information (comments, locations, movies not listed) easily and no registration with the site is required—an unusual feature.
Filmaps also works on the iPhone and was created with the idea that sometimes you’re watching a movie and wonder “wow, I wonder what else is there?” when watching scenes. So you can use Filmaps to find out where the film was actually shot, what other movies were made there, and otherwise explore the area with Google Maps.
This is a good idea that, if kept simple, will be one to see a lot of interest from everyday Web users. It’s appeal seems limited until you actually go and use the sight. Pretty soon, you’ll be looking up all your favorite movies and seeing what else was filmed there and maybe hitting the nearest Redbox to grab some of them.
