Last week, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani helped launch the online resource Flickbay.com, a social networking site dedicated to Bollywood films.
I've been playing around a bit with this new site and, I have to say, it's kind of sweet. Two things I noticed at once:
- First, you should note that the website also launches with Apps for both Android and Apple devices which makes it accessible to a large number of users 24/7.
- Second, this is not your standard informational IMDB.com. This is a social networking site which is designed to provide user ratings and reaction to films and that can be easily shared through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
To log into Flickbay.com, click on "Sign in with Facebook" or “Log in with Email/Twitter” at the upper right on any page. Or you can click on "Sign Up".
Once you login, you can begin searching for films ("Flicks"), other Users, or posted Videos.
This weekend, I started searching, rating and adding some reviews:
The ratings system - identified as the "World of Mouth Scale" - is fun and uniquely appropriate for Bollywood fans:
I logged-in using my Facebook account and I noticed right away is that if I rated a film and also did a review, Flickbay automatically posted twice on my Facebook timeline. This cluttered my timeline and the newsfeeds of my friends and I felt it necessary to go in and delete the duplicates. You can go to your settings and deselect the global option to post to your Facebook and/or Twitter timeline. You always have the option to control where individual posts are shared on the check-in, shout and review boxes, but not the ratings box. If you do not want a check-in, shout or review to be posted to a certain network, be sure to uncheck the appropriate icon box(es).
Click on "REVIEWS" at the top of Flickbay to see the Reviews for the latest films. Or Search for a film or User and read the Reviews there. Posted reviews can be Liked, Disliked, Commented on, and/or Shared on Facebook and Twitter.
Other things you can do on Flickbay:
- CheckIn. Available via the App and powered by Foursquare, this allows you to announce what movie you are seeing and where.
- Favorite: If you like the film, click on the heart to add it to your favorites list.
- Follow: You can follow Flicks or other Users. You can find and invite your real life friends using Facebook, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo and email. Just head over to the "Invite" tab and click your preferred network of connecting with friends. Note: By linking your Facebook account, you will automatically follow your friends from those sites who are already on Flickbay.
- Shout: Post shout-outs about the film to your Facebook and/or Twitter timeline. If you’d like to mention someone you are following on a shout, type @ followed by their name. A list of recommended people will come up for you to add. [It will be interesting to see if the "turn off your cell phone" at the movie theater rule stands if someone feels a "shout" needs to be posted while viewing the film. Hopefully not.]
- Watchlist: Add a film to your watchlist to keep track of who is rating, reviewing, or watching it.
- Videos: Watch the latest trailers, movie clips or music videos to help you decide what film you want to watch next - Flickbay has loaded thousands of videos into the system. The cool thing is that these are all official studio clips posted on YouTube - so you can use Flickbay to find a video, then go to YouTube to embed or share it.
Some restrictions in the system:
- Search: Currently, you cannot search for a specific actor, director, choreographer, etc. This may have been a conscious decision, but it is unfortunate as I'm sure many Bollywood fans would like to see reviews of films starring their favorite heroes.
- Editing: Once you post a review, you cannot edit it. However, it appears that you can delete it and write another one if you need to; however, you can only delete from your profile reviews list.
- City/Location: I had trouble adding either my City or my Location to my profile. I don't know if this is because I reside in the U.S. or not, but that shouldn't be a factor.
- Username: There is no way to change your Flickbay username. You can, however, change your display name via the Profile Settings page. You can enter the name you would like to show up on your posts under “Name.”
Ultimately, Flickbay is an aggregator of Bollywood information integrated with a social network. The value of Flickbay.com is in the 24/7 access, the ratings, and short reviews.
I am left to wonder if Flickbay becomes successful will an overload of positive or negative opinion influence the success of a newly released film? Will a rush of rabid fans to rate or provide a review for one film or one actor overload the system? It will be interesting to see how what happens offline impacts what happens on Flickbay as the user base increases.
I encourage you check out Flickbay - and post some ratings and recommendations. Then let us know what you think!