Movie and television mega-database IMDb is adding a new category for Web TV series, Galacticast creator Casey McKinnon says after a conversation with the head of the Amazon-owned site.

“Today there are dozens of web series listed on IMDb, but they continue to be listed as TV Series. At SXSW this year I asked Col Needham, IMDb founder and managing director, for an update in person on whether they plan to start a category for web series.

“The answer is a resounding yes. In the second or third quarter of this year (anytime between April 1st and September 30th), IMDb will roll out the ability to tag a submission as either a web series or an individual (one-off) online video.”

Needham was at South By Southwest Film Festival this week, where he talked about setting a ambitious goal of adding “one-button streaming” for all the titles it indexes. The site already streams some full-length TV shows and movies, along with trailers and other entertainment-related features.

We’ll be interested to watch this new category develop, especially what the qualifiers will be for web video series to be included in IMDb. With thousands of series in production, with a vast range of polish and quality, it will be a challenge to define what is a “real” web series.

Amazon’s Internet Movie Database announced today that it had added over 6,000 videos to the site, transforming it from a encyclopedia into a formidable video destination site.

Content is being provided by CBS, Hulu, Sony Pictures Television and over 500 independent filmmakers. Videos are featured alongside IMDb’s encyclopedia of movie, TV and celebrity information. IMDb plans to rotate the content, but doesn’t detail its plans for this. 

Highlights of the new content include:

• 24
• Big Brother
• CSI
• Family Guy
• Heroes
• House M.D.
• The Office
• The Simpsons

Older television shows are also available, including:

• Beverly Hills, 90210
• Bewitched
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Charlie’s Angels
• Star Trek

IMDb now also has recent and classic films:

• Fever Pitch
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• Hoop Dreams
• Raising Arizona
• Some Like It Hot

Can IMDb Become A YouTube Killer?

It’s easy to imagine IMDb expanding this model to become a long-tail video destination site and even becoming another challenger to YouTube’s crown.

Sound a bit far-fetched? Then check out this statement from Col Needham, founder and managing director of IMDb.com:

“IMDb’s mission has always been to be the world’s most comprehensive, user-friendly destination for all movie, TV and celebrity-related information, products and services. Our goal is to show our users every movie and TV show on the Internet for free on IMDb.com.”

That’s a massive promise that will be hard to deliver on. But if IMDb even comes close, it will change the future of online video.