Title pages — new version available for sneak peek

At the top of the page, half my laptop 15.6" screen is black (I use an Ad Blocker).

I'm using AdBlock on Chrome, recommended by someone (BonaFideBOSS)

here specifically to make the photo gallery work while blocking ads elsewhere.

I see the _same_ big blank block on Firefox with Adblock Plus.

I find the massive spacing (2nd screenshot) far more of an impediment than the top one. It's a LOT of scrolling to get to the Details section, for instance, which is not a choice among the All Topics menu. AdBlock is not creating the triple-spacing in that shot.

Wow, I just turned off AdBlock, and there are 3 banner ads between sections, not to mention the stuff in the right column. No such junk when I return to the current view.

Switch to uBlock Origin and both of your problems will disappear (photo gallery and top void)

forthehorde,

I'm not seeing much improvement with uBlock Origin:

I just installed it on a clean Chrome to test for you, and with default settings, without touching anything, this is what I see:

Even tried with different locations via VPN, still ads were blocked properly.

I've now tried to clear cache, remove cookies for imdb, and disabled Tampermonkey. I closed the window, and restored it.

The big spaces persist.

The only other thing I can think of is to reboot my computer. Unless you have a suggestion?

BTW, it _does_ make the image gallery work without showing any ads.

uBlock Origin v1.31.0

just updated chrome to Version 87.0.4280.88 (Official Build) (64-bit)

and same result.

Rebooted computer; no change.

Well, interesting, my last suggestion would be to test it on a new clean profile, you can add a new profile to your Chrome by clicking the avatar icon at the top right. You can delete it later if you want. Nothing would happen to your regular profile.

Created new profile, didn't even log in to anything,

Just installed the uBlock Origin extension again.

No change:

Are you sure you have not clicked on some other option within uBlock?

Yeah, just default everything. I'm out of ideas. Maybe a regional thing related to ad-targeting.

Well at least photo gallery is fixed now for you, it's something :)

I tried it again, and now I don't see the big empty spaces (top in black, white at 3 other places).

However, my other complaint remains: too much vertical distance/scrolling to get to the Details section.

It might be nice if we could close the Cast section when we get there, to reduce the scrolling.

I agree: There's too much white space around text.
I want to look around for a "compact" view, such as Gmail has.

I'm using a Desktop computer.

@bderoes I see the same thing using Safari. Its both distracting and ridiculous how big the advertisement is. 

Yeah, I've been experiencing the same thing a while back, even in the old IMDb version I'm using. Not only that, two of the many ads I've been seeing were even ads for chocolates that have absolutely nothing to do with movies, one showing a "pretty" woman taking a bite and another showing a cartoon reptile taking a bite. That was just distracting and utterly annoying, so I used Adblock so I can search for movies in peace instead of glaring at American chocolates you can't get in Norway where I live.

I normally don't use AdBlock on IMDb, but since ads absolutely have to be distractingly big, then I feel I don't have a choice than to use AdBlock, which I hope I can avoid as much as possible. And I'm just glad such giant ads don't appear so often according to my experience.

But just to have it said: At least I don't get ads for dating sites on IMDb anymore like I did many several years ago, getting a bunch of beautiful girls shoved in my face. That made me furious. That was way before I got to know about AdBlock and similar add-ons.

This is confusing; some users assume that those three genres are the main genres or the only genres.

+1, that confuses even employees. One employee here thinks and claims Wonder Woman does not have War genre, when in fact it does have that genre, just not displayed at top.

Even if it can't be afforded display all genres at top, there should be some kind of indication there's more genres when there's more.

No, plur, the whole page is not black.

Try it.

This color change from black to white is even worse!

Hi Peter_pbn, thanks for the report. Can you provide us with more info so we can troubleshoot?

• What URL(s) were you trying to access?
• What error message(s) did you see?
• What device(s) were you using?

Appreciate the help!

I'm not seeing the errors now.

I was trying several different titles including the link in the first post, getting a big "Error" page (with a fun "quote" but no number), in three different mobile browsers on an iPhone.

Thanks! This tracks to an issue on our side, which we've now resolved. Appreciate the report.

New page doesn't show if movies are in top 250 or bottom...

Hi nav_5346813, the "Top 250" feature is part of Awards, which is coming soon. I think the placeholder could be clearer; we'll take a look. Thanks for the feedback.

Information that was on top is now on the bottom of the page. The entire new page looks like a chaotic mess.

Can you please change the cast into a list view, rather than those silly circle pictures? It’s very hard to follow the cast with this new design. The list goes left/right… top/down is more logical… Also those circle pictures takes up too much space. The old cast list also has more cast listed. Expanding the episode brings me to a bloated popup list. It was much better in the old list view because it was compact and much faster to click through each episode.

Terrible:

Much better:

Overall this new page is frustrating and I’m thinking about using Google for movie information once this new look goes live.

I agree.

Very similar points to what I have said as well, Nav.  The page view needs to be compact and clearly split into sections so its easy to view so much information, not make the page even longer than it needs to be.

I agree with most of what's said above:

• The new version is too spaced out
• The giant circle bubbles of cast heads is unnecessary

Couldn’t agree more. The new Cast list is a ‘F’ rating.  A list continuous in one direction is far superior.  

I agree!

I agree, many pages (not only imdb) try to make a website for all, but especially smart phones. The effect is that on a desktop PC it looks strange, sizes do not fit, information is now hidden somewhere else... I hope this does not happen here, finally.

I agree.  I used to love the IMDB website, but these changes are making it worse not better.  Shouldn't be changing webpage layouts to please smartphones.  The new homepage layout is terrible and this new title page is going to be the same.

Please smartphones? I'm using IMDb mainly on mobile and this new layout is absolutely terrible on a smartphone.

Way too much whitespace, awfully big photos and videos and a very distracting, inconsistent layout (square pictures, circular pictures, round tags, rounded rectangles, 50 different font sizes etc.). Plus there's too much clicking and scrolling (both horizontal and vertical) involved to get all of the info you need.

The new design lacks any overview and is downright messy.

Responsive design does not mean you keep half the page white, double every element in size and apply every visual style you can think of. What is IMDb aiming for with this?

I thought there was already an app for smartphones, which is why I'm confused why they are wrecking the experience for desktop users.  Seems I was wrong, and they want to wreck things for everyone (why, why, why).

This is a side-by-side comparison. Same info, but new page is twice as long. I think you see what I mean.

The answer is NOONE.  This new pages format seems to reflect a weird desire ... but I'm not sure what that is -- more pretty, or flamboyant, or just bigger, or clumsy, or wasteful, or frustrating, or just plain crappy.  This is not I feel IMDB should be.  I'm wanting a good information source, a data container that helps people decide what they want to watch, and as well, describe to others their thoughts about what they have seen.

Maybe we need to return to the 80s and ask "where's the beef?" ... we're certainly not going to feel sustained because you've made all the images 3X the size were, or need to be.  All that does is waste our time, and waste our patience.

Exactly. 

Yes, it is mentioned in this help page that some sections are under construction.

And it was mentioned in the Announcement

https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/title-pages-new-version-available-for-sneak-peek/5fc7eae5ce4ce1357af24f6d

Known issues:

• Awards, More Like This, Related News, and Recently Viewed are missing from the page as they're still under construction.

I didn't join until recently when the new design appeared when I browsed the site last week, had an account on main IMDB for probably 10+ years but never knew this part of the site existed. Thanks for letting me know, hope these things are added soon.

@bderoes

Thank you for the detailed report — we'll investigate this as a bug. 

I too very much dislike the new "improved" design. If they decide not to include the option to keep the old layout or a more condensed and less confusing layout, I fear I will sadly have to abandon IMDb out of frustration.