I often look on the IMDb website for info on actors, movies and TV shows on my phone but what if there was an easier way to view this information through an app of some sort? Well now there is, queue the IMDb Widget from moubail.com.

I first liked the idea as it solves the problem of horizontal scrolling on the website as the page is too big for the N97s screen. But after a quick go I’ve found it doesn’t just make it a lot easier to find out the information you require but makes it a lot sexier! That’s right, I just called IMDb sexy! But seriously, it’s like someone has actually created another great looking iPhone-esque application for Symbian (yes, we have some).

Admit it though, a lot of applications for Symbian have an awful looking UI but this is joining those select few developers that have decided to put some TLC into creating this app. It comes with really sleek looking loading animations and kinetic scrolling, what every S60v5 application should have to date.

Every page includes an “Extend search” feature that enables the user to select a website to search the current actor/film/TV show on. The options are Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Amazon and eBay. I find this quite a nice feature that makes it very easy for the user to continue their search, which is often what people do.

Each page has a link to the actual IMDb website where the information is taken from in case you want more information that is available on the website and not in the widget.

Speaking of information that isn’t in the widget, it seems that when you search and select a person (actor/actress) then there is limited information shown on the page which is very disappointing. Although there is limited information on the actor pages, there is a lot of information shown on pages for movies and TV shows.

The only “cons” as such for this widget are;

• The fact that not much information is shown on the actor pages
• That as there is no API from IMDb so that developers can make applications it means that the information has to be scraped from the website (presumably using PHP and cURL). This however is fine until they change the layout of the pages, then we’ll have to wait for a new version to fix the issue – hopefully this day will never come

So after a brief look at this widget I have decided that I really really like it – it’s really well created. Again, it’s free so check it out over at www.moubail.com. It isn’t in the Ovi Store at this moment in time and I’m unsure if it will get added.

Hats off to moubail for this one, well done.

- Aden Beckitt