Spout Review

Reviewed on August 22, 2006

Overview from Spout

Spout offers the following overview on their web site (http://www.spout.com):

We got tired of seeing great films dying on the vine at film festivals because the Hollywood model for Marketing and Distribution is broken. We want to fill the gap between what shows up at festivals and what shows up at the multiplex. In that gap is where we're settling a community of film lovers. A place called Spout.

First Impressions

Spout is a social networking site for movie and film buffs. As they state on the web site, the goal is to sell movies, that is their "bread-and-butter". It is a similar model to IMDB, you can learn about a movie and then buy it. IMDB works with Amazon for purchasing, Spout handles it internally.

Signup

Spout's form asks for optional demographic information. It is nice to see a company finally thinking ahead about potential use for such information.

Service Usability

It appears as though you can do the following with a Spout account:

• Blog about movies
• Tag movies
• Buy DVDs
• Create lists

There is an internal mail system to send/receive e-mails from other Spout'rs. And you can invite others to join your "My People" listing.

I must admit that I am a little confused by the tags. See this screenshow for an example. I searched for films tagged with "searchlight". Two films returned, yet both say they have not been tagged. So I am confused!

I expected to find a way to write reviews of movies, but if it is there, I cannot find it. I think this is a big hole for Spout. How do I know if I want to tag a movie if I can't read other's opinions on it?

What would I like to see added to Spout

• Fix the https vs http issue on the ordering page. Buyers will feel more comfortable ordering when the golden seal of security is shown
• Remove the words in the tag cloud that are below 3pt, they are just unreadable and take away from the benefit of the cloud
• Ability to add reviews

Competition

• IMDB

Final comments

Spout has potential to be bigger and better than IMDB. The social networking component is something that is unique to Spout. But to compete with IMDB (and Amazon), reviews is an absolute must. I think they have some features that IMDB does not including a better usability experience and based on what I have seen, I could see good growth for Spout in the near-term.

Tags: spout | social networking | center networks