Toufee is a new WYSIWYG online Flash movie builder that aims to make it easy for non technical users to quickly create impressive multimedia items for embedding in web pages. Some of the key features include drag and drop element placement, good control over presentation timing and a text-to-speech engine with six relatively human voices. I think there is a lot of potential here - there’s no shortage of people who would like to make Flash presentations without complicated or expensive desktop software.
If you read our review of the impressive multimedia tool Scrapblog, Toufee is more lightweight and oriented to short movies. If you read our review of the very heady Flash film creation tool TagLoops, Toufee is much more straightforward, usable and mature. Some sample presentations, which are quite interesting and are said to have taken only minutes to create, can be viewed here on the Toufee site.
The product is fully hosted, rich in point and click selected element and media options and produces very small files. Flickr and YouTube import are supported. It’s fun to use. The company aims to please everyone from MySpacers through sales professionals and eBay users.
The product is being developed full-time by New Delhi based Sanchit Bhatnagar and Navneet Rai. If Toufee can land on its feet in terms of performance and stability it could do very well in the space currently dominated by companies like Slide and RockYou. Toufee isn’t there yet, but it shows a lot of potential.
Tool responsiveness and interaction with the browser could use some work. Toufee could also be easier to learn. The service could probably use a name change as well. If the word Toufee means anything in particular I don’t know what it is. I can’t help but visualize a toupee made of tofu, but perhaps that’s just me.
Overall, I think Toufee is a company and product worth watching. Once it gets its feet on the ground I think it will fill an important need.
Wow, that flash UI is impressive……. uhhh…….
ugleee….
Yeah, that interface needs some serious work…
Totally weak.
Why is Techcrunch wasting my time with this crap?
If something is non american you guys simply dismiss it as crap
Hello,
We have a lot of stuff planned to add to toufee in the next few days including hundreds of effects and new tutorials.
Thanks so much for the write up Marshall. Glad you liked it
If anyone would like more information, just email us at support at toufee.com, we’d love to share the stuff we have going on here. And once again your review was very encouraging and i promise we’ll be trying to do our best to make this product more and more useful for everyone. Thanks.
Don’t like their name. Couldn’t they come up with a better Web2.0 name?! Make me think of tofu, a white, odorless and tasteless blob!
What the code does behind the scenes is probably impressive and the idea certinaly seems appearling, but their website and tutorials are not professional looking. I don’t think a computer voice is a good idea either. Please change your progress icon (spinning animated gif). I think it looks silly. My recommendation to the India team is to hire a website designer to redo their website then “re-release” the service once that is complete.
For those with unidimensional minds, toufee is a play on TOFFEE, i.e. confection or candy. (Those seeking further illumination on this may check wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toffee)
The footer on Toufee’s homepage says: Contains no added sugar or artificial ingredients. Movies made with toufee are 97% FAT FREE!
Interesting to see so many braindeads here.
What the company defines itself with its name and what that name conjures up in the general public’s mind are two very different things. Think Chevy Nova! Not a big hit in Spanish-speaking countries! If you’re spending money and time to explain your company/product name, may be that name isn’t right for you.
May be those guys at toufee can let us know what’s behind their name?!
I can’t believe the “name” or a “location” of a company would make a difference. Heck, I am a real dummy with flash! I’ve tried everything. When I found toufee I thought I’d give it a try and fail as always. I have found you have to be a real “techie” to understand this. Well, I was surprised! FINALLY I got it! This was easy and I’ve had fun doing it. I’ve made several flash movies for my family and work. Now, I look like the “techie” I had to be before
Thanks toufee, whatever it means!
Only thing I can’t figure out is why it’s FREE! FANTASTIC! Thanks guys!
Brenda
@AllIP: yes toufee is a play on toffee like biz said.. since you want me to explain it, we wanted it to have some connection with web eye candy. the word we made up was from touch and feel, first three letters of both.. tou(ch) + fee(l).. our initial tagline was “don’t just read it touch and feel it”.. because toufee creates flash movies. but that sounded kind of corny so we decided just to use the word toufee and drop the tagline… so its actually a play on two things, the i-candy and touch and feel.. ok, typing this out makes it look silly now because i never thought i’d be explaining it but it really sounded good in my head, i promise
Toufee…Toupee..i think avg users are going to have a problem with this one.
Maybe Shuzak?
>> 4.) “If something is non american you guys simply dismiss it as crap”
What do you think this is, the Rush Limbaugh channel? I’d say the typical user of the site is pretty qualified to judge new Web 2.0 products. It’s crap whether it was made in India or the U.S.
actually, “TOUFEE” is exactly what “TOUPEE” would sound like if you have just received an injection of novocaine to dull your senses, which is probably what you would need to sit through the assorted slideshows on most of these sites…put an E on the front (etoufee) and it’s a tasty tomato sauce in cooking….
btw, do all of these sites make viewers look at sponsored host text (like toufee in the bar) - or could that be stripped out so that nobody knows who or what you used?
The interface is fine… in the right context. A tip to the creators: There are cultural differences in what is considered “aesthetically pleasing”… What is pleasing in one country may look too flashy in another… Don’t read too much into the negative comments. But figure out who your target customer is. If it is the techie geek here in the Silicon Valley, a UI change may be in order.
This one is simply great !!!!and easy that even a kid could make a presentation. Believe me most of the products out there will leave u fixin and formating for hours to do the same thing.. I am not saying that its comparable to the likes of adobe premier element but I have used them all and know what it takes to make a simple visual.
Regarding all those thumb sucking kid .. making comments like non-US crap etc .. i have just to say .. wake up dude .. we r not discussing “toffee / candy” that u eat in ur baby care. This is for grown ups !!
Good work guys!! Keep it up!!
The smartest thing they have done is the marketing towards myspace users. Hundreds of middle and highschool kids would love to add these little flash movies to their site. But the thing is they just touched on it they should go after that market as hard as they can.
And if they do go after that market they do need to dumb things down even more. Which is why these ABCD presto flash animation sites have been doing so well.
Good luck!
Very good point #17 NILS.
The interface doesn’t look too bad to me. I think the background image is the problem.
Iam in Indian - I say it is crap. Dont bring Indian or American into the picture. You guys have a bad product. Go back to drawing board.
Good Luck!
The issues with the UI are not about whether it’s aesthetically pleasing (which it’s not!) but that it’s a nightmare to use! That applies in whatever country you are in.
Inside beauty is what matters.
It’s exciting to see more and more young startups in India take charge and come aboard. We’ve had enough of BPO/KPO stuff.
Hi,
I was trying to build a product similar to this but with different aspect…giving the pitures the power to speak up…..it was like sending flash messages to people made up of pictures,words,sounds and themes.But dropped due negative feedback from people.
Good to see this product….as product is kool….
Congrats guys….keep working on improving it and do listen what your target customers wants.
Great Job guys. Keep at it. Partner or integrate with as many products as possible.
PS: Your web site needs to be jazzed up a bit.
This is definitely good. It will be stronger if they can refine the user experience and design - its fairly crude and that reflects badly when you are competing with a global base. I am sure this is just their early version.
Also, I was not sure of the exact positioning. If its a free utility it really really helps to focus towards MySpace and other social networks. RockYou is the leader there right now.
Btw, what is the revenue model?
I think a lot has gone into discussing the name of product. The industry has seen worse names getting better of the web.
Personally, it is a gr8, easy to use and innovative concept. It has been intelligently targeted at flickr and myspace users. This will defenitely help.
It stick to it’s promise of “making your movies 97% Fat free”.Functionality is good. I think it is a gr8 product.
Toufee delivers what it promises!
I think the product is simply great. I agree that different people have diffrent views but this product is awesome.
Good One…Guys
I think these folks are on the right track with their concept. They will def have a market with the Myspacers, but consider the potential for this product in terms of creating simple instructional materials.
I do think they need to refine the UI a bit. But the concept and the core is spot on.
In terms of the site/company name - take a look at 90% of the Web2.0 stuff out there and tell me that the names actually map to what they are doing. Seeing the explanation of how they arrived at the name does make sense.
Team Toufee-
One thing I’d work on is making the tool a lot easier to use. Not sure if your target user audience is looking to do as much work as required to create really great movies, etc. Sometime hundreds of options isn’t necessarily a good thing…
Hey! They stole my name.