
Show HN: Chrome Extension to See IMDB Ratings Directly on Netflix - pawannitj
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/imdb-ratings-on-netflix/ohonjgnjobblbhfeamidafpnbkppbljh
======
hombre_fatal
Out of curiosity:

The extension makes API requests to
[http://www.omdbapi.com/](http://www.omdbapi.com/) for its data.

The free API key only allows 1,000 req/day but you apparently only need to
spend $10/mo for unlimited queries:
[https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=5038490](https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=5038490)

I've never seen Patreon used as a storefront like this. Kinda interesting
because Patreon also gives you a UI for capturing other types of sponsorships.

~~~
OldPanda123
I built up a similar extension to show MPAA rating on Douban and Zhihu. Though
the extension is in Chinese, I setup a server to host all movies data to avoid
the requests limit of omdbapi. Updating backend data frequently is definitely
a hard job to do. I could guess why omdbapi is asking for support on patreon.
Here's the extension link, if you don't mind I post it here :)
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mpaa-%E7%94%B5%E5%...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mpaa-%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%E8%AF%84%E7%BA%A7/dnjigceoecdajpgbjemglmhhboleipfg)

~~~
utefan001
In case Netflix is dominating your time... This is my Free Chrome plugin that
will block Netflix after 1 hour and wait for you to commit something on Github
to keep Netflix and Chill'n. Other options like Khan Academy are suppported.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/studycity/jhehahil...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/studycity/jhehahilkccjclfadmmplhpdnjjdgdlo)

~~~
Clamhead
I can see people adding this plugin thinking it's a good idea at the time of
download.

Once the functionality kicks in and they're actually blocked when attempting
to access Netflix, 'instant uninstall, proceed with Netflix binge..'.

or ... git commit -m "garbage commit. Give me Netflix!"

~~~
utefan001
Main goal is to get children under twelve to go outside, jump in puddles, ride
their bikes. My daughter did 10 rounds of this once, 10 hours of youtube with
5 multiplication problems each hour and eventually decided youtube wasn't
worth it. It helps children to disconnect for a couple minutes and re-evaluate
their summer day life choices.

~~~
Clamhead
Oh, well if you have someone of higher authority to enforce its continued and
proper usage, then obviously that's a different story.

I was originally commenting from the perspective of the plug-in as a self-help
tool where its usage and existence in the browser was determined solely by the
users themselves.

In a household setting, I could see it being useful in preventing kids from
spending too much time in front of the computer.

------
TimTheTinker
I don't use Chrome anymore except for dev work. Any chance this could be
released for Firefox?

~~~
pawannitj
I have recently learned to make chrome extension, will work on firefox once I
get time.

~~~
chucksmash
It can likely be ported nearly directly.

Firefox supports a quite faithful port of the `chrome` object the Chrome
extension APIs are namespaced under. The four extensions I've written in the
past (generally internal-to-co) were all seamlessly supportable in both
browsers once Firefox moved away from their old extension interface. There are
some differences but Firefox keeps their additions/improvements they make
contained to the `browser` namespace, which seem to be spec-driven[1] so maybe
those changes will end up in Chrome some day too.

TL;DR: don't let worrying about compatibility prevent you from just trying to
install and run the same code in FF to see what happens.

Also, is the source code for this publicly available? I was going to just
check this myself, but I don't immediately see a GitHub link in this thread or
at the linked page from FF for Android.

[1]:
[https://browserext.github.io/browserext/](https://browserext.github.io/browserext/)

~~~
pawannitj
Thanks for pointers, will try firefox too. GitHub link is mentioned on
extension page. [https://github.com/pawanmaurya/imdb-ratings-on-
netflix](https://github.com/pawanmaurya/imdb-ratings-on-netflix)

~~~
Sohakes
I tried it on Firefox and it works fine! I just needed to change the value of
<secret_key> to a key I created on their website (or else it fails silently,
it would be cool to have some console message I think).

------
untog
An aside to the extension itself, but this makes me nostalgic for the days
when browser extensions like this were commonplace. Today I don't even watch
Netflix through a browser (I have a Roku and Android TV at home, and will very
rarely watch on my iOS phone), and this kind of project simply isn't possible
there.

I do understand the reasons why this is the case and don't have any proposals
for how it could be meaningfully fixed, but still, I miss that bygone era of
customisation.

~~~
ehsankia
Realistically, the platform itself should show these (imdb, rottentomat and
metacritic). Instead they show some personalized likeness metric that never
works.

~~~
rkagerer
In nearly 30 years of computing experience, one thing I've learned is the guys
who make the platform never capture all the little details of what you'd like
that platform to do.

IMO iPhones never really shined until they opened it up to 3rd party
developers and built an ecosystem of developers around the app store.

One thing I love[d] about Windows was how deeply you could tailor the
experience (through hooks, DLL injection, etc). Haven't played with Linux as
much but love the concept that you can overhaul the whole source code to
taste.

GreaseMonkey is analogous for the web.

I hope this concept isn't lost as corporations wrest control of both sides of
the user experience (browser and services).

------
digitalboss
I've been using RateFlix for a while now - haven't seen many issues as of yet.
I love these type of ideas. When you add Rotten Tomatoes, I'm totally in to
use!

1\. Movies and TV shows will show an IMDb™ rating next to wherever you would
typically see a Netflix™ rating, and additionally will be shown on the play
bar of what you're currently watching as well as next to each listed episode
when browsing episodes of a TV series

2\. Rotten Tomatoes™ and Metacritic™ ratings will also be displayed in the
same way, but currently only for movies

3\. Clicking on an IMDb™ rating will open the IMDb™ page for that movie or TV
show in a new tab

For Chrome only
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rateflix/dddmgiige...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rateflix/dddmgiigenogheihnldadkdooelhepcg?hl=en)

~~~
cachvico
I don't like that it requests to intercept traffic to
[https://ajax.googleapis.com/*](https://ajax.googleapis.com/*) -that's far too
general to trust.

------
an4rchy
Neat! I always end up doing the google search to check out IMDb/RT ratings.

Another nice to have is the number of reviewers - I've noticed that some of
these movies have high ratings early on (potentially from crew/cast/fans) but
then slowly drop to the mean as more people review the movie.

~~~
pawannitj
Good idea, but I am not sure of how to get number of reviewers since OMDB
doesn't have it and IMDB doesn't have open API

------
tonymet
I like how you scoped perms to only affect netflix.com and omdbapi.com. good
job! Usually when I hit install and see "read and modify your data on all
sites" I go straight to nope!

------
alpb
I think it would be cool if this was generic enough to show Rotten Tomatoes
user ratings as many people nowadays find it to be a better indicator. I hope
you repurpose it someday!

------
cpeterso
I really like Taste.io's movie and TV recommendations. Having just reviewed a
few movies on the site, it has given me better and more unique recommendations
than Netflix or Amazon ever have.

Their site also shows whether the movie is available on Netflix, Amazon Prime,
Hulu, or HBO and will deep link to the other sites. I'm not sure what
Taste.io's business model is.

[https://www.taste.io/](https://www.taste.io/)

~~~
TicklishTiger
My favorite movie recommender is Gnovies:

[http://www.gnovies.com](http://www.gnovies.com)

Apparently it uses AI to predict which movies you like.

In contrast to taste.io you don't need to sign up. You can get recommendations
right away.

------
nomel
For me, the most useful feature of Netflix is the custom ratings it provides.
They're almost always absolutely spot on, with the exception of "Netflix
Originals" which seem to be bumped up a bit.

I'm curious why something like IMDB is useful for people. I would much rather
get a metric related to what I, personally, might like, rather than what the
majority likes.

~~~
alanbernstein
Say you chose to share a single profile with your SO/family/household, for
whatever reason. Then Netflix's ratings would be for a nonexistent aggregate
person that is a combination of the tastes of all those people, weighted by
the relative frequency of use and/or rating actions. This could be
significantly less useful than what you as an individual see on your own
account.

------
vagab0nd
OT, but for anyone looking for an idea: it'll be neat if some service can
notify me when a movie I saved on IMDB is available on Netflix.

------
arkitaip
Great idea but I wish the data source was better, e.g. Rotten Tomatoes or
Metacritic, because IMDB ratings are almost useless.

~~~
hombre_fatal
Interesting, because I've found imdb ratings to be the best because it's based
on user votes.

Movie critics, on the other hand, seem to vote the complete opposite of
regular viewers (and each other) to set themselves apart. Or voting some awful
art house movie a 10/10 to signal that they, too, understood the high brow
nuances that the groundlings could not. I end up agreeing with the user votes
far more often than the critic scores on RT and Metacritic, and the user
scores tend to line up with imdb anyways.

~~~
untog
IMO IMDB has a big problem with recency. #3 in their top movies list is The
Dark Knight, which is frankly absurd (it's a great movie, but #3 of all time?
Come on)

> Or voting some awful art house movie a 10/10 to signal that they, too,
> understood the high brow nuances that the groundlings could not.

I think this just speaks to a divide in movie reviews. Those critics are
reviewing the movies as art, whereas many user reviews are reviewing movies as
a consumer product. Neither approach is incorrect, but they have very
different outcomes.

~~~
selflesssieve
RT has Black Panther as their #1 movie of all time. The fact is, people have
learned to inherently train themselves to use certain review websites.
[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/)

My current rules - Anything over an 8 on imbd is a must watch if over a year
old. If a comedy/action movie over a 7 is fine. For less than a year old I
read reviews, and decide how invested I am in watching it. Fantastic Beasts 2
tanked, but I watched it anyway and enjoyed it.

~~~
eythian
Similar for me, but more forgiving. Especially for horror which I enjoy but
IMDb raters don't seem to the same. In general, anything below a 6 I'll maybe
reconsider, or 5 or so for horror.

------
abhi3188
Perhaps this could include scores from multiple sources, similar to how google
displays them when you search for a movie.

~~~
pawannitj
Yes, I am planning to introduce atleast rottentomatoes ratings at first.
Wanted to validate idea first.

~~~
Semaphor
Would love the RT connection, especially if it has both critics and user
scores. IMDB usually tells me nothing but "This sucks, don't watch it" (score
of 5.X) but I don't get anything else from their ratings.

------
moxplod
This is a cool idea. But worked once - did'nt work for a LOT of titles i
tried. Seems to be some bug.

Friends - [https://imgur.com/a/t5aduhK](https://imgur.com/a/t5aduhK)

~~~
pawannitj
OMDB currently supports movies only, I think, that might be the reason. Will
look into it

------
isalmon
Love it!

Bug:

\- Does not show the rating for all movies. Examples:

\--
[https://www.netflix.com/title/80189213](https://www.netflix.com/title/80189213)
(empty)

\--
[https://www.netflix.com/title/70136120](https://www.netflix.com/title/70136120)
(N/A)

Feature requests:

\- Show "IMDB rating" right away and a spinner while you're fetching the data
from the API call.

\- Let me click on it and go to IMDB to see more information

~~~
pawannitj
Thanks for feedback. OMDB is used as data source and its doesn't have all
movie's info. Will see if there's another data source with better coverage. I
really liked idea of putting clickable link to IMDB.

------
pawannitj
Update : I got "HN hug of death" and OMDB api free limit is crossed. Working
on converting it to premium.

~~~
pawannitj
Its fixed now thanks to quick response from OMDB creator

------
miki123211
does that work with international, non US markets? non english Netflix
versions?

~~~
JorgeGT
I can confirm it works for the Spanish site.

------
uoflcards22
it's being super super slow for me, otherwise, cool idea

------
rodolphoarruda
Netflix won't work with Chrome(ium) on Linux.

~~~
OscarDC
This should depend on whether your "chrome" package has the Widevine content
decryption module plugin packed with it. With Arch linux - for example - it's
a separate package to install.

~~~
cpeterso
Yes, Netflix and Widevine should work out of the box if you are using Google's
Chrome or Mozilla's Firefox builds for Linux.

~~~
rodolphoarruda
Yes, it works fine with Firefox. I looked up for Widevine in Synaptic and
found nothing. Same thing with Chromium extensions. I'll keep researching.

