7 Messages

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262 Points

Wednesday, February 26th, 2020 4:59 AM

4

Title Search vs Keyword Search: The Craziness of ?title_type= And ?genres=

The two primary Search programs on IMDB.com are Title Search and Keyword Search. These are distinctly different pieces of software, written by different people, but perform largely the same function as one another.  The parameters they accept are largely the same, and the records they display are largely the same.  There are a few distinct differences, and I'll get to them.But I want to point out one big old glaring difference between the two.  Under a Title Search a Feature Film is known as a "?title_type=feature", while under a Keyword Search a Feature Film is known as a "?title_type=movie", and they always a different number of results.  They are not different names for the same thing.Let me start by showing this bit of deconstruction of the two search engines, and two prominent variables they accept.https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=&genres=keywords= title_type= feature video short documentary video_game tv_movie tv_special tv_short tv_series tv_miniseries tv_episode (also accepted inputs from Keyword Search): movie videoGame tvMovie tvSpecial tvShort tvSeries tvMiniSeries tvEpisode genres= action adult adventure animation biography comedy crime documentary drama family fantasy film-noir game-show history horror music musical mystery news reality-tv romance sci-fi short sport talk-show thriller war western (adult and short are not advertised in the advanced search.) https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?title_type=&genres=keywords= title_type= (CaSe SeNsItIvE) movie video short videoGame tvMovie tvSpecial tvShort tvSeries tvMiniSeries tvEpisode (Title Search inputs are NOT accepted): feature documentary video_game tv_movie tv_special tv_short tv_series tv_miniseries tv_episode genres= (CaSe SeNsItIvE) Action Adult Adventure Animation Biography Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Game-Show History Horror Music Musical Mystery News Reality-Tv Romance Sci-Fi Short Sport Talk-Show Thriller War WesternSo you can use this as a quick reference guide to the lay of the land between these two searches.  By and large they are identical, but strangely, Keyword Searches cannot search for objects with a Title Type of Documentary, nor does it return the same list of Feature Films (=movie) that a Title Search displays for Feature Films (=feature). As you can see, besides the fact that a Keyword Search requires its variables to be Case Sensitive, with a slight difference in variable naming convention... much of the rest of these search functions are identical. The results from a Keyword Search displays a larger thumbnail, and a Refine Search box, while the benefits of a Title Search is the ability to return 250 results per page instead of just 50 (&count=250), and a few other minor details. But what I really want to identify is the difference between a Feature Film "feature" and a Feature Film "movie" as they are defined between these two different search engines.  Most films overlap between these two categories, while 10 to 20 percent do not. Anyone?

7 Messages

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262 Points

5 years ago

Great, but tell me what the difference between a "feature" Feature Film, and a "movie" Feature Film is.Tell me why these two searches for "Adult" genre return different search results.https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?genres=Adult33 titles.https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?genres=Adult63 titles.

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5 years ago

Using the Refine options on this list (yet another way to access "search" capabilities):https://www.imdb.com/list/ls007035631/?title_type=movie&keywords=singer(notice it translated the checkbox label "feature" into title_type "movie")found 542 titles.But using ATS,https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&keywords=singer&lists=ls007035631found 533 titles.Unfortunately, keyword search doesn't recognize the list selection parameter.Here are the 9 titles from the longer list, all documentaries:Becoming Traviata (2012)Every Little Step (2008)Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982)Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)That's Dancing! (1985)That's Entertainment! (1974)That's Entertainment! III (1994)That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)Wagner's Dream (2012)(Side note: very annoying that the 2 searches alphabetize differently. Something about foreign films, and/or alternate titles in general.)So, I suspect that the quantitative difference you mentioned in the root post is that "movie" includes "documentary", and "feature" does not.

7 Messages

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262 Points

Huh, well that was a nice theory, but it doesn't seem to pan.  You'll have to tell me more about your List Search, I'm unfamiliar with those.But If a KeywordSearch type of movie were the same as a TitleSearch type of feature,documentary then I would expect the two to have the same number of results, but they do not.  Yet, a (non obvious) TitleSearch of type movie will indeed return the same number of results.https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature,documentaryhttps://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?title_type=moviehttps://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=movie So, it still isn't clear what exactly a "movie" title_type is, besides a "Feature Film" by some other definition. Do you happen to know of a way to view a movie's page and glean the title_types it has?  I can't seem to find or edit the title_types of an IMDb entry.

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Interesting that title search works at all for "movie".https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=movie535,449 titleshttps://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?title_type=movie535,462 titlesNowhere near a 10-20% difference. https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature433,331 titleshttps://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=documentary284,805 titlesAnd 433,331+284,805=718,136So "movie" is more than "feature", but less than "feature" + "documentary".But https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=movie,!documentary(movie, but not doc'y)433,331 titlesThe same count as just "feature".

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title_type=documentary seems to include not only features, but also shorts, videos, TV movies etc. (but not TV series/episodes)

7 Messages

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262 Points

whoa!  I did not know you could do !exclusion searches by with the bang prefix!  I'm going to have to test your theory, that's wild.  So these two are equal count:https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=featurehttps://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=movie,!documentaryAnd yeah, I'm not sure why "movie" is returning a slightly different count, but I'm going to guess it has to do with database caching at different times on the server end.  I get the same behavior with any similar searches between Title and Keyword search engines.  It's only ever off by 15 to 40 results, so each search engine must be using its own cached copy of the database that's updated periodically.https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=moviehttps://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?title_type=moviehttps://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=shorthttps://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?title_type=shorthttps://www.imdb.com/search/title/?genres=animationhttps://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?genres=Animation

7 Messages

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262 Points

I guess this is why the Keyword Search eliminates the Documentary title_type, but doesn't necessarily explain why or to what exact nuance.  Any relationship between Genre or the "Documentary" Keyword perhaps?  A "Special Keyword"?

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I'm not sure of this, but I believe there once was only the keyword, and later the title_type for doc'y. The database has been scrubbed to the extent that no Feature film title_type has genre Documentary:https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&genres=documentaryNo results.