Write Reviews for NYTimes.com (Really! … Sort of)

NYTimes.com has debuted a new Movies section, Movies.NYTimes.com. It’s got 20 years worth of New York Times movie reviews (accessible for free) and a new section called “Critics’ Picks,” with recommendations and reviews from Times film critics. One interesting feature is a new “Readers’ Reviews” area, where Web users can rate movies, post their own reviews, and read other website visitors’ reviews. NYTimes.com spokesperson Christine Mohan says “The Matrix Reloaded” alone generated more than 1,400 user ratings and numerous pages of discussion and analysis within its first week of release.

What’s interesting about the user-reviews feature is that here’s a newspaper site that’s taking a page from Amazon.com, with its long-standing user reviews of books. NYTimes.com has even mimmicked Amazon.com with a “Was this review helpful to you? Yes/No” blurb at the bottom of each user review.