If you have kids and Nickelodeon (or Nickelodeon.com) just doesn’t cut it for you all the time, tune into Totlol. It’s children’s Web video for the children of the YouTube generation. In fact, Totlol was built by one developer in Vancouver, B.C. (Ron Ilan, father of two) entirely on the YouTube platform. It is a collection of thousands of child-appropriate video clips from YouTube, chosen by parents, and rated by toddlers.
Totlol uses the YouTube API and reskins all the videos with its own player (much like we do with Elevator Pitches). Viewers can rate and collect videos. Collections act like playlists. Plop your child in front of the computer, and it plays all the way through (not that I would ever do that, of course).
So why not just watch these videos on YouTube? Totlol acts as a filter for these videos and presents them in a more child-friendly format. Every video on the site has been vetted at least once by a parent (hopefully). Ilan explains what he hopes to achieve with Totlol:
How do you take those lousy clips form YouTube and make them beter than any DVD collection you have?
Those who sign up as members are given extensive parental controls. You can block individual videos, and set time limits, for instance. Totlol launched last May, but Ilan just recently added Totlol a full-screen player for members that makes the whole experience more like TV. And he is adding more features all the time, such as an AgeOptimizer that “algorithmically optimizes the site content to a requested age group.”
For a video site built by one person, Totlol is impressive. And it shows how YouTube could give rise to hundreds of niche video sites with their own features and communities. Although, what Totlol is missing is a channel on YouTube itself, which would probably be the best way to recruit more toddlers and their parents to Totlol itself.
I like the idea: providing video for kids. We can do the similar thing using Magnify.net. But to bring my kids there… sorry… the name make me and my kids feels stupid… Totlol… is to close to Tolol… which mean, in Indonesian term…. stuppid.
Stuppid? {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/DalQazm597_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Stuppid? ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/OcE7FPjsji”}}}
I predict that this website doesn’t have a significant level of success for the simple fact that it’s Canadian. If it starts to have any level of success, the socialist government will move in, Tetris creator style, and give all it’s profits to millions of able bodied welfare recipients and corrupt crown corporations, and Italian mafia figures in the Canadian government.
And thus nothing Canadian, barring RIM which is given a pass go card to show how “you can in Canada”, will ever have significant success. USSR 2.0
Chris, sometimes I wonder what you are on. Seems like whenever a Canadian company is featured on TC, you go off on some bitter rant. Care to elaborate more about your statement below.
“…give all it’s profits to millions of able bodied welfare recipients and corrupt crown corporations, and Italian mafia figures in the Canadian government.”
Christopher Rondot is a well known troll around these parts and especially bitter at Canada because he FAILed here and needs someone to blame.
His record:
beercosoftware . com = FAIL
sitespaces . net = FAIL
orjii . com = FAIL
techlusive . com (and the rest of the network) = FAIL
Sorry but Chris Rondot = FAIL. And I wouldn’t be so harsh if he wasn’t such a colossal jerk.
BTW Chris, ever heard of Flickr or maybe StumbleUpon?
(Note: Edited URLS and resubmitted to get around apparent spam trigger)
Christopher Rondot is a well known troll around these parts and especially bitter at Canada because he FAILed here and needs someone to blame.
His record:
beercosoftware.com = FAIL
sitespaces.net = FAIL
orjii.com = FAIL
techlusive.com (and the rest of the network) = FAIL
Sorry but Chris Rondot = FAIL. And I wouldn’t be so harsh if he wasn’t such a colossal a**hole.
BTW Chris, ever heard of Flickr or maybe StumbleUpon?
Chris is clearly speaking from personal experience. Let’s not doubt him people. He doesn’t like it when you doubt him…
While I don’t appreciate my country’s style either, I can’t say I agree. Besides, most good Canadian companies end up working out; they just move.
Amazing. Anyone who has a 3 year old glued to youtube will love this!
Thank you for creating this!
Anybody who has a 3yo glued to YT should lose their kids.
I like the fact that by using Youtube they won’t have any bandwidth cost which makes the business very lean. Hard to fail when costs are minimized.
I like the site. The only issue I have is that my toddler doesn’t have the skills yet to click on the thumbnails yet, so I’d have to come back to the computer to switch to the next video every 2-3 minutes or so, in which case I’d much rather put a DVD.
I have video sharing sites blocked in OPENDNS, so none of the videos show. It’s hard to apply universal parental controlsand then exception out good sites. Content censorship is fun.
The kids sector seems to have been totally ignored by IPTV. Hulu doesn’t have much for kids in terms of full episodes, finding something for kids in Adobe Media Player is a joke. I wonder why the kids networks haven’t followed NBC, CBS, and ABC by putting more full episodes online?
Totlol might be fun for kids in small 3 minute chunks, but it that’s about it. Not even close to a new “Saturday morning cartoon” experience.
Great work, anybody who have little kid, know what is find something aceptable for his childrens on net
YES! Often thought of doing this but just never got the time aside.
My kids will definitely use this and this is a potentially HUGE untapped market.
Contact me if you need feedback or want to pass any ideas!
The one problem btw, is that if one video gets through that a kid is NOT supposed to see, the credibility it done. I wouldn’t them let me son click without me being there… which (in part) defeats why the site exists.
Interested in how they administer the managers of content.
I think this is a great service. Here’s another way your kids can watch video (and more) on their own terms. A TechCrunch50 Demo http://kidoscomputer.com/news
Cool, thanks for the info on this site! I also agree that the parent should always be present when a kid is watching something on this site… this does not take away parental responsibility to monitor what children watch.
Momma