I think the search interface itself is pretty nifty. However, I'm a bit perturbed by their business model.

Evaluating keywords value based upon their hypothetical, hopefully sometime in the future, if we get our traffic up value seems to be a bit on the outlandish side.

Especially when considering the sums of money necessitated to purchase a keyword. Especially when that cost is comparable to a google keyword purchase which utilizes the "cost per click." model. And not to mention that for every one person that uses leapfish approximately 10,000 people use google.

Good product. Nice interface. Very controversial revenue source.

Robert, great video and cool service. But, would you please keep your hateful opinions about former President Bush to yourself. Thanks.

Any innovations to search is welcomed by me. I still think search UI as a whole today can be presented better to provide more of the info needed.

I think google is good,and i like it.But i'm very expect the Leapfish's
capability.

It is very good!google is good too.I agree with this

About a year ago, I do remember hearing some crap about how Ben's a real prick but beyond that, I know nothing about him.

As I stated in my last response are we perfect? No. And I'm not just talking about people at LeapFish - I asking everyone that's watching, reading and commenting here. I agree with this

The way LeapFish astroturfs, Ben could have written those threats himself? If he did not, he should report those threats to proper authorities. Death threat is considered a criminal offense. But so is the perjury....

Anonymous,

Yes it is Ok to post anonymously. But I prefer to use my real identity and I stand behind everything I say good, bad or other.

A 22 year old entrepreneur can make mistakes, especially while under immense pressure created by other people and situations that building a large company can create. But people move on and they grow, just like everyone else in life.

LeapFish has apologized for the click event that occurred by an individual acting on his own accord. We have taken specific action to prevent such events by adding additional trainings to the sales staff. For the record, we never blamed TC, we were unhappy that they spun the event into a LeapFish sponsored incident.

This is the Official LF reply.
http://blog.leapfish.com/2009/02/04/leapfish-and-the-facts/

Also, for the record, there have been online rumors, innuendo and outright attacks against Ben. At LeapFish, and me personally, we look down upon any actual instance of defamation and assume you do too given your concern in the last post.

All of my previous posts have addressed these concerns. There are enough posts below addressing all of this so as not to keep repeating the same things.

Thanks everyone for your posts!

Mark Kithcart

Mark,

It is not a crime to remain Anonymous, especially if some one will try to "ruin your name across entire Bay Area".

To put the past behind you, you need to learn how to say "WE ARE SORRY". You have to mean it. You have to act like you mean it.

Firing some one because you get caught with your pents down by TechCrunch simply isn't enough. Blaming TechCrunch for getting story wrong is just plain suicidal.

Anonymous posts are great. Thanks for posting Anonymous's!

The link below is old old news. LeapFish is a company that is moving forward. Old news is old news.

As I stated in my last response are we perfect? No. And I'm not just talking about people at LeapFish - I asking everyone that's watching, reading and commenting here. I don't think there is one person that could say they are.

What I think, as this country is going through this period of time, is to focus on what matters and get better. At LeapFish, that is our focus. I understand things have happened and I suppose anytime something positive is written about LeapFish "the search engine" other outside comments and old info will be brought into the conversation.

Folks let's move on an create something great with our time. Creation, action and innovation is what will get this country back to where we know it can be.

Thanks to Robert he saw a great, cool, new technology and took a look at it for what it was. We didn't sway Robert or make him interview us - he suggested stopping by. And thankfully he is about the good that a technology brings. It wasn't about dirt, innuendo, rumor, gossip, he said - she said or anything else. Thanks Robert for being a professional.

Thanks again for commenting - even the anonymous ones.

"We give kudos to all of the entrepreneurs and folks out there that are about building people"

http://brokerscience.com/re-web/eperks-com/ben-behrouzi-voicemails-threa...

http://trends.google.com/websites?q=leapfish.com%2C+keyboardr.com&geo=al...

Again everyone thanks for the comments.

LeapFish had a TC article written that was a little over the top in our opinion and we have responded with the facts and we stand by them.
http://blog.leapfish.com/2009/02/04/leapfish-and-the-facts/

We are building an incredible search engine technology that the majority that take a look at it love it and use it. We know we won't please everyone but that goes with the territory and we also know we're not perfect and issues will come up. We would be remiss if we did not address the issues but we are addressing them in every sense of the word.

We are moving forward just as any company would in economic times that are difficult to say the least and we are providing value through our search engine and having some great success.

We give kudos to all of the entrepreneurs and folks out there that are about building people and companies up instead of trying to tear them down.

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive in our journey as we become a search engine of choice for many.

Just found this. It explains in detail why it is cheaper to advertise with LeapFish, they just click the shit out of your Google ads if you don't.... Nice try Robert.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/03/the-leapfish-chronicles-admitting-t...

Advertisers will have on opportunity to sell their keywords in marketplace??? What marketplace?

basically the guy is asking advertisers to *invest* $$$ in the hope that one day leapfish may get traffic to justify the $$$ (more like lock in your rate before it goes up... HURRY!)... instead why doesnt the ad rate reflect the true value of leapfish today?

Hi David - Thanks again for comments.

Our Domestic Alexa rank is in the 9 - 10k range and we just passed Cuil.com for Domestic traffic (developers of Google engine technology).

Is this where we want to be - No. We will continue to climb as we have over the past 3 months since we started. Every company starts somewhere but not too many new start ups crack the Alexa top 100k within 3 months and for some not even in 1 year (especially without VC funding). Thankfully we have through hard work.

Again we still have a lot of work to do and traffic will increase even more. But we are excited about the traffic to date and the loyal users.

Good comments - appreciate them.

4 times minuscule traffic = minuscule traffic
You've had no real traffic since you were an appraisal novelty.
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=leapfish.com&sa=N

Hi David - Thanks for joining the conversation.

We actually are getting a great return rate of users that are searching every day. I obviously track those metrics very closely on a daily basis and the increase in traffic has correlated to an increase in daily users as well - it has also been over a 4 times increase in the past 3 months.

I'm not missing any data since this is my job. But if you have some that I'm not aware of I would welcome you to forward that to me.

Thanks for the comments.