Last I heard about Leapfish (this was a couple of years ago), they ran a useless but fun tool that provided you with a free appraisal for your domain name based on a variety of ratings and criteria. Now they’re back with an equally useless tool, this time without the fun part.
The company just revamped itself under the ownership of California-based DotNext, morphing into what they refer to as a “multi-dimensional information aggregator,” which is actually nothing more than yet another meta search engine. You know the kind: sites that pull together search results from real engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo and attempt to differentiate themselves by adding tabs for meta-searching images, videos, Q&A, blogs, and so on. Leapfish also displays a number of static, non-customizable widgets on their homepage for the latest news, weather reports, and a stock market summary, which is a kind of step backwards from all the start page personalization efforts we’ve seen over the years.
The company is actively contacting potential advertisers to buy keywords for top positions in their search result listings for a flat fee—typical registration fees are reportedly around $1000 and there’s a yearly renewal fee of 5% of the amount spent —which would give them a “lifetime” guarantee for a top slot for that keyword, but they also get the opportunity to resell it later to another advertiser. Of course, this is only beneficial if Leapfish becomes big, and the chances for that are slim.
The premise of meta search engines is that the aggregation process digs up the most relevant results across different sites and technology platforms, all on a single page. What I want to know: if these meta search engines (and boy, are there many) deliver significantly better results or a greater experience than a Google’s or Yahoo’s core search technology can on its own, then why doesn’t everyone flock to them instead?
The answer: people don’t want to get as many search results as possible and they don’t care about how large the unindexed part of the internet is, let alone what they might find on this so-called “invisible deep web.” All they want is a quick, convenient way of obtaining decent information from a source they know and trust. Or do you honestly visit Search.com, Dogpile, Zuula, Fazzle, Clusty or Mamma.com to get what you need? (I can go on with this list forever, but ask Mark Cuban about how much that last one is worth).
Don’t get me wrong: I see the value of startups trying to improve search and driving innovation both on a technology and a business level, and I’m sure some will be able to compete and carve out their piece of the market. In fact, I hope some of them will. Because no matter what your opinion is on human-powered search, semantic search, vertical search, or social search engines, you have to admit several companies in that space are trying to push the envelope, often drawing attention from the big guys or keeping them honest at least (see yesterday’s announcement about Yahoo Glue, for example).
For me, though, wanna-be search engines like Leapfish don’t clear that hurdle.
leapfish…is a joke. It will take only a few minutes to design a web app like that… It just uses msn, yahoo, google search engine to search the word entered in leapfish’s text box. Surprisingly it is ranked 110k in Alexa…
I wonder who funds these kind of “school projects”?????
http://www.livbit.com
uhh some meta engines do get a lot of traffic. dogpile has a 1600 alexa rank dude. somebody uses them
oh snaps! they also do domain appraisals. If you type in a domain name in the search field it will give the appraisal on the next page.
techcrunch is worth $83,954,325 !!
You are brainless, as they are now ranked in the 20k rankings of Alexa and that is dropping daily. I never knew “oh snaps” was a phrase. You must be on “BAD DUDE”.
Actually, I could see someone purchasing some links on LeapFish if they’re one of the top 10 keywords that are searched for. Other than that, I’m not sure if there would be a reason to advertise.
I did a search and at the top of results, it said “Web results from Google”. So it seems like an aggregate engine.
–
New Site For College Students: http://www.inkampus.com
Wow! I actually like this engine… Its not dry like dogpile and mamma. I don’t understand if they became as large as they are now how this one wouldn’t either.
Eh, I’d rather search from the source to take advantage of instant answers, like maps, wikipedia summaries, etc.
I liked the engine as well. Seemed to bring everything together. I ranked first blogs
Useless and without the fun? What are you talking about??? I love the site – it’s easy to use, you have all the information that you need on one site. What more do you want? I see this as the next generation of search.
Leapfish has a Sales Executive by the name of Hywel Aprees.
Leapfish is Awesome, this is definately something that I will use.
Check out this site
http://www.coas...oastcondoms.com
“Where The Customer Always Comes First.”
Hey, that’s not only an appropriate tag line for your business, but funny too…. ours is appropriate:
“Bridging the Gap between Debt and Equity”
http://DrawbridgeLeaders.com
but not funny at all….
I also just got phoned by a LeapFish salesman… I reckon their offering would be more interesting if there wasn’t the flat upfront fee + 5% annually, but rather a month by month rate (or at the very most quarterly) so one could withdraw if the results are not forthcoming… I made a mistake in taking such a bet years ago with ChoiceMall. The upfront flat fee is basically a bet that LeapFish will become a big player.
This site is perfect for all my searching needs. I get Google, which I always use anyway, by default then I can immediately see images and YouTube videos related to whatever I’m searching for…how convenient is that?!
Plus, as an academic scholar, I it really helps when creating essays, presentations and performing research where you’re urged to use various sources! I can see this engine taking off and becoming the dominant search engine for the more hip and tech savvy individual!!!
You never know what might happen this (meta search engines) vertical since there’s no one who has proved themselves and once done that might change your prospective for meta search engines.
Sounds like someone is working on it right now. Isn’t it? Guess who?
Are the previous comments serious? You would think they could do a better job to not make them look like advertorials.
This engine isnt even worth the writeup of how fail it is. There are much better meta engines out there ( scour , url.com , etc.. )
I mean, the only ‘hook’ this one has is that it charges for results, making it even more fail.
I came across this web site a few days ago and have been using and tracking it ever since. It’s simple to use and I actually think it is a great idea! I’m a graduate student and have done several searches on the site.
Why must people be so negative?
Simple: Because no normal sane person is that enthusiastic over a search engine scraper.
Here’s a rough search idea I’m working on:
http://searchau...pic_demo_tc.htm
It also provides multiple sources, but it *also* provides a list of relevant searches/queries related to a topic.
this is the worst I have seen Derek.
Care to elaborate?
Keep in mind, this page contains a *very rough* concept of my idea. It’s not meant to polished as a completed app.
Anyway, I’d love to know why you feel the way you do.
Thanks!
Thing that frustrates me is that you open results on google’s website, that is fine but to see other website’s results I have to change tab again and then click on other search engine’s link.
I must say I think this site is great!!
The way the internet is evolving there is too much information and too many ways to find it. This seems to bring the major players together for a more efficient search. I agree that the stuff on the left is very cool and advanced. I recommend it.
Your analysis of the meta-search concept is spot on. We actually incorporate it with LittleShoot, but it’s just a convenient add-on feature for the user — not the core of what we’re offering. The core is p2p searching and publishing in the browser, where p2p networks are simply another source. I’d be curious what people think — http://www.littleshoot.org
Derek,
Not bad with that searchautomator–cool app. Just not a big fan of being pointed to google website.
I definetely think leapfish has the right idea of where the internet is going and how its getting so big. Its always nice to realize that certain content existed without having had searched for it specifically in the first place. I probably wont use it exclusively but sure will from time to time.
Ignore the original comment .. .Troy works for LeapFrog!!!
Busted !!
Leapfish is cool! I will definitely add Leapfish to my toolbar. It’s a one-stop-shop for search.
LeapFish is yet another “false benefit” model by Ben Behrouzi, formerly of Brabus Ventures now Dotnext, where they sell advertising against traffic that doesn’t exist. In this case you pay around $1000 to own the paid advertising around search results that are similar to adwords with one difference: you don’t pay per click, you pay per year, with no performance guarantees or standards. It is not pay per action or pay per click, once they get your lump sum payment, they do not have to perform.
Ben Behrouzi’s other company, ePerks, uses a similar model but they sell zip codes instead. They essentially sell advertising against a site that has little to no traffic and does not advertise itself… very little use to subscribers. Then when subscribers don’t pay and try to exercise the “guaranteed” refund they were promised, they are sent to collections.
Ben is infamous for suing a blogger, Vlad Zablotzkyy when he wrote about Ben’s companies. He also threatened to sue my blog, BrokerScience, when we wrote about him and documented the failure of his company iHype.com to launch.
Ben is also infamous for threatening to blackball an employee that left. You can hear his voicemails by clicking on my signature.
Until a few days ago, LeapFish was banned from google, if you use site:leapfish.com, you will see they only have one page indexed and adwords trackers show no advertising, so they give no real benefit to the those fall for their cold call sales pitches.
All you have to do is google “ben behrouzi” to learn about this shady operators past, present and future.
Trace, you sound like a disgruntled employee or ex girlfriend. By the conviction in your long paragraph, It’s very obvious, you and the “founder” have some personal history together. What is your name so we can Google you?
What does your comment have to do with the effectiveness of the site? Regardless of the “founders” personal life…I think majority of us think the site is cool. Do us all a favor and stay on topic!
The site was down at about 11:05 GMT-5:00. I did a screenshot of the asp.net dump. Check out the last line of the image!!!
http://www.flic...N02/3047520282/
It reads: “c:\Projects\Brabus\SearchHelper.cs”
That is so funny. There is no fault checking nor error catching. The entire site failed because the remote server was ignoring leapfish. Even on my most basic apps I would want to have some sort of basic error detection and recovery when relying on external sources.
For example an app I am working on that publishes headlines for feeds has two fall backs – old cached feed or default feed if all else fails. I wrote that app in three hours with no money at all.
My mind is officially boggled.
Trace you are a hater man. its so obvious. have your head checked dude, youre a nut.
thanks Trace for your investigative work and concise report! your explanation of his “scam model” was the most valuable part of the article.
non biz/tech types like the life coaches at my site are easy targets for being scammed into paying $1,000 to rank #1 for “life coach” in some obscure search engine (happened to several members already) and this is just another variation.
it would be great if Robin would update the main article with your info.
maybe some nice anchor text for them like imo Leapfish may be a “search engine ranking scam”, imo Leapfish may be a “google adwords scam”, imo Leapfish may be a “ppc pay per click scam”, imo Leapfish may be a “web advertising scam”.
and thanks Lord Matt for the hilarious commentary! I will be more careful from here on in calling anyone a rogue!
Thank you so much for creating such a great Search engine.
My friends & co workers were using and told me about it.
I love it and use it everyday since I learned about it. I don’t have to go to differnt web sites to gather all the information I need anymore.
Leapfish has made my life very easy. I used to spend hours to get the material I needed on the topic I was doing research on, but not anymore.
My friends and family members enjoy it as well.
thank you again
Emily
For the record: most of the comments above (unsurprisingly the positive ones) are bogus ones, coming from the same IP address.
Astroturfing, ur doin it wrong.
Great bit of info. Can we make this a regular “update”?
I do agree, What a Wonderful service!!!
You actually enjoy research on any topic you choose.
Always good to see that the art of PR (though in the case of this posts comments, bad PR) is alive and well.
I mean I guess it’s possible that after a negative posting on TechCrunch that suddenly their could be a groundswell of anonymous comments declaring that the LeapFrog people are geniuses and that their search engine clone is the best thing they’ve ever used since their first experience with ribbed condoms.
Seriously, more likely that the “team” was mobilized to use their personal hotmail addresses for the good of the company.
I think leapfish is great, the features are impressive.
Do be careful with these guys. They sued a realtor blogger when the heat got too much so that now “eperks” (Oh whoops they are trying to distance themselves from that brand) returns their website and then pages and pages of negatives. ejerks the name they picked up from bloggers returns significantly more.
The story goes that this guy Ben got personal and the blogger outed him but lacked the funds to take it to court to prove it. There was some settlement in which there were no winners but more significantly no losers.
I followed the story closely on my blog and as a result have not bothered to visit this “engine”.
Do me one big favour could you please – mark the shill posts so they can be quickly skipped – I have a feeling this is going to be a hot discussion for all the wrong reasons and I want to be able to get past the astro quickly.
Ta.
Are you for real buddy? what are you babbling with that name and hat.
I don’t care what anyone says…just try it out for yourself. I am the type of person who doesn’t like to be lost in the media and waste time surfing. I used leapfish to track the election results and love it…cuz I get an overview of everything I need to know in less than 10 mins…and out.
And the video layout is awesome. Check it out!
Wow! I love Leapfish. I am poor and don’t have $$$ for the latest and fastest technology. Leapfish gets rid of the hassle of having to click on several different links (and wasting time reloading) to get me where I want to go. While technology snobs may snub their nose at Leapfish, we regular folk love it! Its simple and easy. I have already made it my home page. Bye-Be Google. I’ve found something way better.
LMAO
lol Leapfish was made for the Sarah Palin in all of us. Thank you, Leapfish.
I go to the web site all the time and recomend it to others.
haven’t seen any thing like this before.
Curiosity got the better of me. There is nothing there that my search status firefox add on does not do in a fraction of the time. What’s all the fuss about? I could have written that to use up a spare afternoon. Any salesman that can sell that to the technology crowd is worth twice whatever he or she asks for because it unsells itself. Fail on so many levels I had to smile. Cheers TechCrunch.
I’m pretty sure it is the greatest thing since sliced bread, just read all the great comments
Alright, blocking the IPs for these clowns. They’ve made themselves look like fools long enough.
Awww, I just got the popcorn and everything…
Tom I just almost peed my pants. lol
I probably should keep out of this discussion but I just could not pass your comment!
Another Ben Behrouzi classic: he stole his “Values” and “Culture” pages from Chevron and Mervyns… stealing a “Values” page, really?
http://brokersc...t-infringement/
After the fall out from this and many other episodes, Ben had to remove his profile and management profiles off of Brabus Ventures and onto DotNextinc.com.
He also removed his profile off of ePerks and does not metion ePerks on dotnextinc. because the brand is so damaged from his spamming, legal threats and blowback from the real estate community…
Holy shit dude. Remind me not to piss you off. You are relentless, but funny nonetheless.
lol! cant imagine they cant even mask their ip’s while commenting
I am sure they are using multiple proxies or machines to query yahoo/google search engines should probably extend it commenting on blogs
Robin,
Thank you for the article. I very much appreciate TechCrunch writing about our new engine. I apologize if some of our employees have posted extra comments on here from our office IP. We have over 80 account executives and you can imagine they are excited and a little set back by the angle of the article also.
I along with our employees, clients and supporters strongly believe that LeapFish offers something very different than the same old Meta Search Engines that are out there. Our unique interface, that will evolve over time, really allows users to find information they wouldn’t normally find in other engines.
Our goal is to work with online authorities in all sorts of areas including real estate, social networks, music and more to help capture the breadth of the Internet in once place. We feel LeapFish will be a very popular tool for many of the more complex searches that take place online today.
Also for the record you and your readers should know that, the trace richardson and lord matt commenting above are rogue bloggers looking for attention, traffic and destruction of others. They are motivated by a disgustingly shameful agenda that clearly manifests itself in their comments above and have a long history of stalking our people and spreading fabricated news in mass quantities. The company will be addressing each of their malicious activities soon.
Thanks again for the article Robin.
Best,
Ben Behrouzi
DotNext Inc.
It’s amazing to think that it has been a full 6 months since your last threat to sue me for my coverage of your companies and your business practices. ( http://brokersc...-brokerscience/ )
Since that time you have been defeated in your last suit of harassment against blogger, Vlad Zablotzkyy and have been forced by the negative coverage to change the name of your company from Brabus Ventures to Dotnext Inc. without even referring traffic or making any mention of the name change on brabusventures.com. There is no longer any mention of ePerks on dotnextinc.com. I chronicled the destruction of the ePerks brand here: http://brokersc...nd-destruction/
Time and time again you claim that there is a conspiracy like agenda and accuse me of writing “fabricated news in mass quantities”. In fact this blanket accusation is made against anyone that covers you or your companies, I just happened to be the first person to put a name and face to the business practices everyone else was covering in the form of you, Ben Behrouzi.
You have failed to provide us with one example of a factual or otherwise inaccurate statements we have written, ever. We have even gone so far as to offer to print your side of the unedited, which you refused. We will immediately correct any inaccuracies and apologize if they are found. Immediately. You have been unable to take me up on this offer so far….
Your employees’ conduct in spamming these comments is par for the course and even though they were “excited”, their actions speak volumes about the culture you foster in your organization. Do you know what would happen to most employees if they engaged in such behavior that cast their company in such a negative and damaging light?
We get feedback, email and phone calls from current and existing employees of yours on a regular basis sharing their experiences with you. Heck we’ve even had neighbors call. We print virtually none of this information unless it is relevant to our coverage or the topic at hand.
I can sincerely say I don’t think you are stupid enough to sue me after your defeat against Vlad Zablotzkyy and the fact that you simply have no ground to stand on.
Stating the facts does not make one “rogue” as you put it, but failing to take responsibility for your actions and the actions of your employees does make you an ineffective, unethical and irresponsible leader.
Trace,
Maybe you didn’t read the letter of retraction posted by Vlad. We sued Vlad for defamation and once he posted his letter of retraction and completed obligations in the settlement we let him go. You have taken that story and completely rewritten it to make headlines. You can find that letter of retraction here : http://www.go-b...le-the-lawsuit/
Trace you don’t state facts. You state falsities, like the above. Already on this post I have informed you consecutively of the falsities you have published yet you continue to ignore even those. Why? Because you have an agenda.
Trace, fact is you continue to stalk and harass me. This is evident by the fact that you rushed over to this TechCrunch article to quickly post your negative comments that have nothing to do with the engine. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself and how you cling to me and our efforts.
I have reached out to you more than once for a call to set the record straight. You have ignored them. I am offering you one last chance to clean up your bogus claims. You have my contact info.
Ben,
You were claiming damages (as you have against myself and many others) and settled for a lawyer scripted retraction letter from Vlad Zablotzkyy. I call that a defeat. More importantly, suing a blogger nobody ever heard of this the sole reason that a google search for ben behrouzi, eperks or brabus ventures is littered with blog post after blog post condemning you and your actions. Again, a defeat in my book. Backlash so great you were forced to change the name of your company. Wow. Sad.
Your statement that I stalk and harass you is laughable, writing about and documenting your business practices is not stalking. Unlike when you have tried to force other bloggers to shut down their blogs, I am standing you down, there is a difference.
I read techcrunch and comment when I feel I have something to add. In this case, you have demonstrated first hand with your comment shilling that you lack integrity and common sense. This is bad coming from an employee, worse coming from a CEO. Are you aware that employees at other companies would be fired if they engaged in making dozens of fake comments as yours have throughout this post? If TechCrunch was a lesser blog, they would just be one more company you are threatening.
You have never reached out to me in any way, shape or form and I will NEVER stand down to you. I like getting you to talk because that’s all it takes to make my point. In this case, your actions speak louder than words as Silicon Valley has watched your employees show the true values you and your companies embody.
I repeat: State for the record anything I have ever written that is inaccurate and I will immediately fix it and apologize. It’s that simple, otherwise, stfu and let’s not bore TechCrunch readers with this embarrassing display. I know I’m embarrassed, I can’t say the same for you.
Ben,
With all due respect, this is the second time you are attempting to interpret (and disclose) the settlement. I think it would be wise for both of us to leave it up to our attorneys to make statements regarding the settlement. Don’t you think so? Please know that I have forwarded the comment you made above to both of our attorneys.
Hello ben (if you refuse to be decent and use capitals for names I’ll take it that is how you wish others to treat you), thanks for letting me know I’d gone rogue as opposed to…? What following the company line, adhearing to the written standards of… ? what would those be?
Anyway, ben, I’m calling you out on this one.
You will now need to prove this or retract please. Just for reference because I feel you to perhaps lack the brains to do this for yourself here is what rouge means according to Google whom you seem to value so much.
http://www.goog...=define%3Arogue
1. A deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
2. Horse that can not be broken of bad habits.
3. Homeless man or vagabond
4. A scoundrel, rascal or unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; A mischievous scamp; A vagrant; Deceitful software pretending to be anti-spyware, but in fact being malicious software itself; An aggressive animal separate from the herd, especially an elephant;
1. That’s fighting talk mister!
2. Are you calling me a horse? You will have to provide photographic evidence for that one to stick you reputation is not exactly untarnished you know, ben.
3. You are factually incorrect in this one, ben, I have a home and am in it right now.
4. Are you saying that I’m spyware pretending to be anti spyware. Dude you need to go back to school! I’m as human as they get. Sadly so are you.
Assuming that you were using metaphor and did not intend to incite legal action let us assume that that definition 4d is what you mean: “An aggressive animal separate from the herd” in which case as a member of the heard of bloggers I must be said to be running with the heard on not liking you too much. However Seth G and others preach that we should go against the stream, be remarkable and otherwise think outside of the box.
I shall choose to select your meaning that I am indeed embracing the purple cow ethic and therefore doing my job really well.
Relay thought, ben, you should choose you metaphors with more care. My I might have just gone with “You are a mammiferous extractor – milking things for all they are worth” which at least would have been funny.
However you have been warned and I will require that you be able to back up all claims in a formal court which shall be of my choosing. I select the British Court and expect your costs to be extensive to my £50 or so filing fees.
I suggest you keep your temper under control and likewise control the actions of your staff as on company time and when under direction of the company their actions are seen to be those of the company and/or board of directors.
Now I suggest you go find another business to start and ruin – off you go I have some serious “attention seeking” to get done at your expense, ben.
Ben,
Are you saying Trace has impersonated you on these messages?
http://brokersc...atens-employee/
SomeGuy,
If you have ever run a large enterprise with hundreds of employees, a board, shareholders and others with vested interest that you report to, you would understand the immensity of the pressure created when a rogue engineer intoxicates himself with alchol on the job, sabatoges the live production environment, steals $200k in tech equipment and never returns a call from his 4 managers.
Rogue engineers and bloggers alike tend to tell you only a fraction of the story. You should check to see how long its been since that engineer had a job and how many local authorities appeared at his home.
Its a brave new world, don’t believe everything you read.
Thanks again for all the comments on the engine. If you have any further questions, you can supply them to our media team at medai@leapfish.com
Ben Behrouzi
So is that a Yes then, you are the person on the messages. It’s a simple question and only requires a simple answer. That answer would be yes or no.
Wrong answer Ben, it is never ok (nor legal) to theaten to blackball and ruin the livelihood of someone’s children, girlfriend and loved ones. Never. EVER. ever.
In fact you never apologized the the gentleman and the word is that after you were ousted from Reply.com, he was invited back to join the Reply.com.
Furthermore, he was never sued nor prosecuted as would be the case if somebody stole “200k in tech equipment” as you allege. In fact, it seems you might have brought that up if you weren’t so busy threatening to sue and blackball the bloke.
This would be a GREAT opportunity to apologize to Scott and his family.
Trace,
You coward. You are the furthest thing from a journalist or blogger. You never checked your facts.
1) I was Never fired from Reply. If you were an upright individual you would have checked this information before you posted it and racked up the damages. I lead the development of Reply! over the course of 6 years. I co-founded that company at the age of 20, while you were probably still playing with your legos, and built the technology from the ground up while I went to university at night. I left the company to build new businesses and to this day remain one of the biggest shareholders and advocates of Reply, you coward.
2) Scott Chestnut, was let go the first time because of use and abuse of alcohol at work. Probably didn’t tell you that part. Because I believe in giving people second chances, I am the one that brought him back to Reply the second time after I required him to go to rehab. He was never brought back to Reply after I phased out. Once again, you should have checked your information. The reason the suit did not go forward, was because the equipment was eventually recovered and returned.
Trace you are a child looking for attention. Grow up.
Ben, god love you, I know you can’t help yourself. I’m addicted. I admit it. Your threats, spam and business practices are engulfing me and I can’t get enough. Every time I try to stop coverage of you and your companies, you threaten somebody, sue somebody or get caught red handed spamming the comments section of techcrunch calling yourself a “genius”. I love you.
Time and time again, the feedback I have gotten is that you were OUSTED from Reply.com, if that feedback is incorrect and you left on awesome terms while taking employees such as your current director of sales, Scott Leese, with you, you have my sincerest apologies. I will set up an interview with Payman Zamani (founder of Reply.com) and clear up the record if that makes you feel better. I certainly expect him to say it was a clean break and that his fine, considering he is your uncle and reportedly employs your mother.
For the record, you always threaten that damages are “racking up”. Last time if my memory serves me correctly you said we had racked up a high six figures in damages… where are we at now, I’ve lost track. Are we at 7 figures yet?
Regarding making threats to blackball and ruin the livelihood of Scott, his children, girlfriend and loved ones, repeat after me: IT IS NEVER OK TO THREATEN ANYONE OVER ANYTHING. IN FACT IT IS ILLEGAL. How can we make you understand this. Even if Scott did bad things or ultimately turned out to be a bad person, that does not excuse your actions.
Is there no limit to the embarrassment and punishment you are willing to inflict on yourself and what is left of your brand?
Trace,
I am just shocked by the emotional attachment and this fatal attraction a grown man like you has for me. You are so hung up and interested with my life, its unbelievable, and I am guessing readers are beginning to see your real motives. For the record, I did not make any of the posts that do not have my name attached and I know its hard for you to accept it given your living is based on bashing people like me, but there was more than 1 founder at Reply. I know its hard for you.
Your jealousy and agenda are even more apparent now with your repeating of the same inaccuracies, capitalized words representing inaccuracies and your jokes leading away from the fact that you are a rogue blogger on the hunt.
You say you received some feedback? What kind of journalist or upright individual for that matter, publishes “facts” based on “feedback”? Give me a break. You are rogue and with an agenda.
Your character assassination will come to an end. I invite you to have your interview and I expect a public apology from you.
Ben,
If you were not ousted from Reply.com, I apologize, all sources have told me otherwise. That is really neither here nor there in light of the embarrassment your employees have caused you by shilling the comments on this very post or the voicemails that show how you treat others, now is it?
You call it character assassination, I call it documenting your unethical, immoral and illegal business practices. We will have to agree to disagree.
I am locked, loaded and ready to go when a process sever rings my doorbell. If you think the public backlash over Vlad Zablotzkyy, you haven’t seen anything yet. You can be damned sure that we will be subpoenaing Yahoo regarding the false accusations of child molestation that were made against Vlad Zablotzkyy after he covered your companies and that’s just the beginning… http://brokersc...p-address-link/
T
Sounds like the guy who wrote this piece is cheering for the recession, too.
Leapfish is the Future Now. What more do you want? It’s Brilliant and already advancing both swiftly and sure-footedly. Here’s only some of the reasons why:
It’s a multi-generational search. A Deeper Search. More Info More Intelligently Organized Means More Fun More Quickly AND More Substantively!
No matter what…Leapfish is gonna Rock HARDest…
Whether as a business tool or New Generation Cool, people are already finding more of what they want when they search. That’s gonna be hard to top!
If you think you’ve got something better going on go buy stock in it.
The pricig tool they have on there for advertisers (which I honestly believe they would do well to release to the general public ASAP) is Destined to become the online running ticker tape for the new generation, the Do It Right (Now) Generation being ushered in with the recent changes taking place right aftetr they launched on November 3rd of this year!
People are gonna be asking “What have you Leapfished today?!” You jus’ wait and see…and Rememeber: Ya Heard IT HEAR 1st!
Peace.
ROFL
Leapfish is the Future: TODAY!! Why, with Leapfish, I did my taxes, got out of jury duty, made billions of dollars in Haitian penny stocks, freshened up my cat’s litterbox, and even made julien fries!!
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!!!! Thanks to Leapfish, my breath is minty fresh, I lost over a hundred pounds in two weeks, and my colon cancer instantly went into remission thanks to the AWESOME power of HTML!!1 I’ve reunited with my estranged wife and made contact with aliens from the Andromeda galaxy – ALL THANKS TO LEAPFISH!!
While browsing Leapfish, Jesus Christ himself appeared in my monitor, and I was all “Holy shit, it’s Jesus! How’s it going, Son of Man?” And Jesus was like, “Not much, motherfucker – just getting ready for the Second Coming! And do you know WHY?!” And I go, “is it because of Leapfish?” And the Messiah was like, “Hell yes it is!” We then gave each other a high five and played Guitar Hero for FIVE HOURS all thanks to Leapfish!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU LEAPFISH!!!!
do a search on leapfish for ben behrouzi
very interesting
That is indeed interesting! But did you know: Leapfish holds the solution to our current economic crisis?
Using Leapfish brand Leapfish Product (TM)(C)(MA)(LMNOP), I uncovered a plan by Hank Paulson that involves the entire treasury department joining hands and dancing around Fort Knox on November 24th, chanting the magical words “Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gates and Buffet!” Upon the pinnacle of that fort will be placed a single, solitary laptop with its browser pointed to – you guessed it – LEAPFISH!!!
As the moon nears its apex and Aquarius sets in the gentle west, a golden mist will spread from the aforementioned laptop, and within its euphoric tendrils, happiness and prosperity will once again dawn upon the land (although GM will still go bankrupt.)
To what do we owe this marvel? LEAPFISH!!!
This is the funniest thing I have read all week.
Greg:
Some comedy advice.
Less is more.
Anonymous Schmuck:
Save your advice for someone who gives a damn.
I Believe
To Greg C.
I love you, too, dude. = )
To Grec C., also…
Now…Go LEAPFISH, Biotch!
Dear Pip,
Reply button? What’s that?!
Sincerely,
Epstein’s Mom
Dear Epstein’z Mom,
How’z our son? = )
–Pip (Daddy)
Wait.. what? You gotta be kidding me.. This is a school project right?
Nope. They are serious.
In order for LeapFish to live up to the vision expressed by Ben, the platform would need to be open, as Robin suggested. The current implementation is just a mediocre meta search engine, lacking the functionality of Google or Yahoo alone. The vision might be right, but the implementation is totally wrong. Good call, Robin.
This Ben Behrouzi sounds like a real scumbag. People like this make me very grateful for the rewarding environment I work in and the mutual respect we show each other. I would advise people working for this man to move on… there are much better opportunities out there.
Just don’t write your thoughts and obervations about him, his companies or his business practices on your blog or elsewhere or you too will be the lucky recipient of never ending legal threats and harassment that myself and others have received.
No word yet on whether Ben Behrouzi and DotNext Inc. will be suing TechCrunch.
This is the most amateur site I’ve seen in a long time. Is this thing actually funded?
Where is your search engine?
@trace:
“it is never ok (nor legal) to theaten to blackball and ruin the livelihood of someone’s children, girlfriend and loved ones”
How would you know? It sounds like you don’t, and never had, anyone who has given you an ounce of love in your entire life. Hostile, backbiting, bitter, and completely sad.
My statement is self evident, that you don’t get that says more than I ever could.
Are you serious froggy04 Google (or LF) “fighting on the internet” please.
http://www.goog...on+the+internet
And honestly what sort of lame fake name is froggy04?
Jesus H Christ we have some pathetic losers blogging about something they could never accomplish. Instead of bitching, complaining, mud slinging and crying like little girls, why don’t you hateful losers find something better to do than be openly jealous of the engine. Example: Instead of sitting at home eating cheetos, browsing the internet to sensationalize something you have nothing to do with so that you can now hold your head up high with a false sense of self importance so the guy working at McDonalds won’t think so little of you while you come in to order your double quarter pounder with cheese and super size fries (A daily tradition of all bloggers i’m ignorantly assuming), and suppliment such activties with community involvement, donating time to serve food to homeless people, or, I don’t know……get a life and come up with a bright idea of your own. But let me guess, that would require you to actually do something beyond sitting at home on your laptop….oh, my bad.
Trace youre scum. scum of the earth. You accuse him of doing exactly what you are doing to him….. Dont you have a life?
Get a life you parasite and let those with the balls get the work done
Umm…has anyone actually gotten any work done? All I see is an afternoon project masquerading as a startup, with spammers and a shady CEO to boot.
Do I need to point out that some of the activities of the eperks… sorry leapfish employees seen today are illegal in every EU country and specifically the UK where I come from?
http://www.seom...ting-techniques
Does anyone know if I am justified in using the phrase “criminal scum”?
Wow, feels like an episode from Days Of Our Lives!
Oh btw
Check out http://www.jobstaxi.com
New Jobs. CauseForce. Strands. Carbine Studios. NCsoft.
Wow! This is entertaining.
Robin,
I think you were a little hard on leapfish. The concept is great and the interface can work. Would I use it daily? Possibly, but not yet. Add more search items (maybe as suggested earlier make it open for developers) and it will definetly be an engine of choice.
Trace Richardson,
You simply sound like a Michael Arrington wannabe. Your mortgage lead generation website is shameful. Before you begin critiquing people and other websites take a look at your own.
Pip,
Thanks for the laughs, needed that after I looked at my stock portfolio today
Yer welcome, Restie = )
I trust Leapfish to take positive suggestions (such as opening it up for developers) to heart because it is potentially a very dynamic search site. It could be Very Special with the proper attention to client/community feedback.
From what little I know or have seen or heard of Ben, the CEO, he is a sharp, mindful visionary businessman of sorts and his team gets results…THAT ALWAYS, sadly, brings out the haters…as we all can easily see.
Enjoy Leapfish!
I’ve read this entire comment stream all the way thru. Fascinating stuff. I actually have some friends who had told me about this site and that they bought some keywords that they would essentially own as Trace had outlined above. I was a bit skeptical of it then and am now completely convinced that this is just a big, fat scam. I’d be really curious to hear from people who have tried recently to get their money refunded from these keyword purchases? Also, I’d love to hear Ben’s response to the very well documented plagiarism charges outlined above? Was that also a ‘rogue’ employee? (and how come I can’t find these pages on the Internet Archive? Was he able to get them removed??) And the astroturfing here is seriously seriously weak. I mean, c’mon, make a fucking effort.
Robin,
I think your article was a bit ugly and unsubstantiated. To start, the title and initial paragraph of the article both appear to be somewhat misleading. The manner in which you report the news makes it sound like the previous entity holding the domain name Leapfish is the same company as the present Leapfish, and you either wittedly or unintentionally tried to convey that this was a second launch rather than a first.
Not to mention, the title of the article seems brutal and unfounded. One would have to ask who is “no one,” in reference to the phrasing, “no one will ever use.” Is there a quantifiable number, here? Are any analytics available? “No one” usually refers to not a single individual, and this is far by any means a true statement—at least be in the “ball park” when reporting to the public.
Then you blatantly called Leapfish a “useless” tool, without giving one example of how it is useless. Is this journalism or a rag column? “Useless” means having absolutely no use or purpose. Obviously, this wording is not appropriate. I thought TechCrunch held itself to higher standards of objectivity.
You even boldly wrote, “Of course this is only beneficial if Leapfish becomes big, and the chances for that are slim.” This epitomizes more vagueness and an erratic guess; I would not even offer that this as speculation. What exactly is “big?” Is being “big” mean holding 95% of the market share? Or, possibly you expect all “big” companies to have the capacity to overtake Google? Your thought pattern, here, seems to undermine the foundation of business in America, which is not solely ran by the very largest companies in a particular industry.
Next you try to tie Leapfish to several meta search engines, and proclaim “all [users] want is a quick, convenient way of obtaining decent information.” Umm that’s exactly one point; Leapfish does allow ‘convenient’ independent or vertical search on several search engines.
Further, you insult the intelligence of your readership when you ask do you use site x, y, z “to get what you need.” The Techcrunch community or reader base knows that most searching is done on major search engines. I think you may be the only one thinking that meta search engines should replace search engines, the source of their content and existence, to have any value. The fact of the matter is people use these sites—take a look at the traffic statistics.
Is this article an opinion piece? Or is it supposed to be the news. It is certainly flawed from a journalistic standpoint.
I’m sure you write some good articles. I look forward to reading some of them. However, while you had a couple points in the article, this one was a miss. (And no one hired me to express this view; I did it freely.) That’s my piece….no more time for any additional commentary. Thanks.
Bill, if we’ve given you the impression of being a journalistic outlet or a purely objective news site in the past, we apologize. Yes, this is a blog, and we’re (very) opinionated around here.
I was going to say (except Robin said it mostly first) “duh!” and as for the geekish shared meaning of “big” and “no one” I understood exactly what was meant. For the technologically illiterate:
“big” means getting to the point where the big three consider you worth buying or where you are ready to go for a floatation on the exchange or where you become a cult classic with a strong following.
“no one” means no one of significant note; too few to be counted; a non remarkable number equivalent in value to none, negligible, lacking to any significant figures…
My blog has around 80 subscribers and so I have not made the big time and no one reads it. Any one that would find this site remotely interesting understands this. that would make me a nobody but the beauty of blogging is that the voice of a significant (or big) number of no ones is very powerful as ben discovered over the whole eperks thing. Heck as a no one I rank in the top ten for his brand which must irritate him as that cost me so little work to achieve.
If I want hard news I go to bbc.co.uk or similar but if I want opinion I go to a blog (such as this fine blog).
Did I miss anything Robin?
Robin,
That’s the right answer. Not sure if you sniffed this out — and who knows, maybe I’m paranoid — but Bill’s comment is too thorough and well-edited to have been a passing rambling. Looks to me like it was written by a lawyer with the intention of baiting you. I wonder if it was written by a member of Behrouzi’s legal staff? Maybe Ron Cook can let us know.
@Lord Matt: as for my “lame fake name”, it is a nickname of my son and the year he was born. I have been using it for some time. How very fortunate for you that your mommy named you Lord Matt, instead of you having some ridiculous self-important fake internet name.
Not sure what you meant by the “internet fighting” stuff, but as far as my comment to Trace, that goes double for you.
Have a nice day.
@froggy04 okay, hands up you got me – I stooped to an Ad Hominem. I apologise for that.
yes, because your a fag “lord matt”…
Vlad Zablotskyy is a True American Hero!
I like the site. Whats more is I applaud companies for trying to carve out a niche in a market that has been monopolized by the big 3 (Google, Yahoo MSN!)
I believe that this is where the furture is headed in terms of the aggregation of popular sites. Yahoo just launched a very similar product. It’s a shame to see all this mud slinging against a company that is clearly on the cutting edge of internet technology.
BTW the title of this blog was completely inappropriate.
Jrich