NeonGrid

Jun 26, 2014

Continue reading the main story LOS ANGELES — To find credit information for Hollywood’s various disciplines, from acting to hair styling to casting, the go-to source is the Internet Movie Database , or IMDb. Broadway has its own version . Looking to track appearances by vehicles in films? But good luck tracking down who worked on that YouTube or Vimeo video. A start-up called NeonGrid — co-founded by a former IMDb executive — aims to change that. Unveiled on Thursday at VidCon, a California convention for creators and fans of online video, NeonGrid lists credits for various video participants: performer, director, videographer and so on. Contact information is included. “The goal is to allow people who work in online entertainment to claim their credits in real time,” said John W. Gibbons, a NeonGrid founder who spent roughly a decade helping to build IMDb, which is owned by Amazon. NeonGrid does not collect the information itself. Rather, it enables amateur and professional video creators to tag their work (and the work of others). NeonGrid then organizes the results, which are presented with watchable video. Controls are built in to keep the information accurate, according to another founder, Greg Delson. The site is free to use, although registration is required. NeonGrid, which has about a dozen employees, eventually plans to charge for advanced searches and some other expanded features. At introduction, NeonGrid has more than 30,000 credits. More on nytimes.com