Monthly News Recap

Here you will find a recap of monthly events, news and information from LeapFish. You will be able to get a snapshot of each month’s overall activity and where we are heading.

February Update

This month LeapFish has been busy improving and expanding its search platform, as well as spreading the word in the local Bay Area.

Also this month, LeapFish has received many positive user testimonials. At LeapFish we measure our success by user experience and would like to acknowledge those that have made the success and growth of LeapFish possible. Here are a few examples:

“What a pleasure it has been to work with Leapfish, a company I recently learned about and then signed up. Every time I have had a question their response was quick and helpful, friendly and filled with ideas to make my marketing work better. Rather than just answer my question, their client services specialist, Paul, asked if I would be interested in hearing some ways to improve my campaigns. Of course I would! And his ideas were great.”


Hazel W., PHD

“I have worked closely with Leapfish in order to maximize my target words. Before Leapfish I was faced with the choice of spending outrageous amounts of money to have my website hopefully visible; and in the forefront of search pages. Leapfish has given me the ability to market my company for an inexpensive amount; and puts my website in a designated place on each and every page my target words are used. One of my favorite attributes of Leapfish is I can see exactly where and what target words are being used. My second favorite attribute is that Leapfish makes searching so easy, as they gather their information from a variety of sources. I feel they want my business to succeed; therefore, Leapfish makes it easy to contact their offices and always are willing to help. Leapfish is user and business friendly.”


Candy L., Motivational Speaker

“I purchased 3 Keyword Positions for my Private Investigations Business in March 2009. I have been so pleased with the results and referrals from the Keyword ads that I purchased one additional Keyword Position just yesterday. I have been in business 30 years, and this is by far the best advertising dollars I have ever spent. I would certainly recommend this opportunity to anyone in business looking for a way to effectively and economically advertise.”


Gary E., CPI

LeapFish in the Social Media Community:

Green Business Super Mixer

On February 24, 2010 LeapFish attended the Green Business Super Mixer. The meet brought local talent, businesses, and non-profits together to stimulate the local economy. The Bay Area Business Link is a growing community and 350 guests attended the event.

As a sponsor of the event, LeapFish talked about the great opportunities with the company as well as all of the new, innovative ways LeapFish is improving search on the web.

Top Print & Online Publications:

Bill Hartzer

Search engine expert and blogger, Bill Hartzer, recently wrote an article on the growth projection of LeapFish. The article touches on LeapFish’s growing user base as well as the remarkable Alexa growth from 2008 to 2009.

“I am a lover of LeapFish, particularly because I think LeapFish is one search engine that might actually have a chance of making it to the big-time.”

Traffic Rankings:

This month marks another personal best for LeapFish, reaching a 2,228 domestic ranking on Alexa. Keep checking back as LeapFish gets closer and closer to 2,000!

January Update

LeapFish is ringing in 2010 with a bang! Already there have been several upgrades on the website, positive reviews from customers, and some exciting Alexa reports.

January started out great with a customer review on the blog, Al’s Topics. The author wrote a post about the his experience with a LeapFish sales executive. Overall he was impressed with the look and capabilities of the site, saying, “As a net surfer I just think it’s cool and I like the engine better. (Sorry about that Google and Yahoo…).”


The interaction made him reconsider the most common form of web advertising; pay-per-click ads. Al went on to share his excitement about the possibility of owning a keyword forever without having to allow room in a monthly budget for the pay-per-click costs.

Top Print & Online Publications:

CIO

CIO, a publication that provides technology and business leaders with insight and analysis on information technology trends, recently reviewed LeapFish as an alternative to traditional search engines Google & Bing. This article truly embodies that which is the living web, with rapid growth of information sources, real-time content and conversation streams, users now seek alternatives to the traditional ways of navigating the web.

LeapFish in the Social Media Community:

Silicon Valley Tweetup

LeapFish attended the Silicon Valley Tweetup as a sponsor on January 20, 2010, and had a great time telling everyone about the benefits of LeapFish. It was a great opportunity to network with other tech enthusiasts in the area. The event’s goal was to raise $1000.00 for Epic Change’s Twitterkids of Tanzania, due to the unexpected turnout and enthusiasm for Shel Israel’s book signing, the team was able to hand a $2300.00 check to Sanjay Patel Co-Founder of Epic change who flew in from Florida for the event. Attendees were also excited to engage and discuss LeapFish and it’s integration of top social media content providers while contributing to a great cause. We look forward to attending more Tweetups in the future and spreading the word about Social Media!

LeapFish Enhancements:

Topsy Results

LeapFish has partnered with Topsy to bring you relevant real-time search results. Rather than pulling Twitter entries directly, Topsy lists the most relevant tweeted links for your search term. This brings the real-time content closer to your fingertips.

Celebrity Tweets

LeapFish has now added the Celebrity Tweet search widget. In addition to pulling search results from all of Twitter, LeapFish will also include a section with Celebrity Tweets. Follow your favorite celebrities and see how they relate to your search topic.

LeapFish Directory

LeapFish is creating a search directory to help increase traffic by creating millions of pages to be indexed on the web. The directory will increase traffic to your sponsored ads, as well as increasing LeapFish’s visibility on major search engines.

LeapFish Advertising Center

The LeapFish Advertising center is getting a new look! The information is now easier to read and navigate. The Advertising Center is a great place to learn about the LeapFish advertising system and a great place to start your own keyword ownership.

Traffic Rankings:

In just over a year, LeapFish has gone from its November 2008 ranking of 161,000 to the latest January 2010 ranking of 10,854! Who knows how high LeapFish can climb in 2010!

December Update

The month of December has been an exciting month for press, LeapFish additions and community involvement.

On December 14th, LeapFish released the newest upgrade to the search site. Now you can get news results from Digg, see profile results from Facebook and Crunchbase, and browse publications with Scribd. Ben Behrouzi, CEO of LeapFish says, “LeapFish will continue to integrate more services and valuable content to equip users with a search engine that does an extensive search of the web.”

LeapFish is also adding the Astrology Widget to the homepage. Inspired by user comments and suggestions, this new widget will show your:

• Daily Horoscope
• Monthly Horoscope
• Romantic Horoscope
• Work Horoscope

Add the Astrology widget to your homepage and start getting your horoscopes today!

Top Print & Online Publications:

SF Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle’s technology blog, The Tech Chronicles, describes the recent trend in charity fundraisers fueled by social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The article goes on to describe the partnership between The Greater Bay Area Make-A-Wish Foundation and LeapFish to raise $100,000 to send a 4-year-old boy to Disneyland.

WebmasterRadio.FM

The hosts of Webmaster Radio’s Townhall Radio podcast spoke with Ben Behrouzi to learn about LeapFish’s new social search engine. Behrouzi unveiled LeapFish’s multi-media and real-time search, communication and sharing platform. The hosts went on to say, “You’ve worked around the information overload problem. You guys are packing a ton of information on the page and it doesn’t feel too busy.”

Search Engine Watch

Search Engine Watch, a blog covering search engine news, recently reported on LeapFish’s recent real-time and social search engine launch. They highlight the innovative combination of social media and search housed on LeapFish’s homepage. The post by Frank Watson notes that “LeapFish offers a start page for web users where they can watch their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as set up feeds for news, entertainment, sports and other services.”

SF Newtech MeetUp

The San Francisco New Tech MeetUp is a premiere networking community sponsored by the New York Times & Mashable. This year they set a personal record with 7 companies presenting and LeapFish had the opportunity to close out the event with a very interactive demo!

Key influencers in the media attending the MeetUp were excited to engage and discuss LeapFish. In the end LeapFish received a positive response and the question of the night was, “Are you hiring!?” The Team at LeapFish is proud to say we are hiring, growing and will continue to innovate your search experience online.

LeapFish in the Community:

Tweet-A-Cause Update

The Tweet-a-Cause for the Greater Bay Area Make-a-Wish Foundation® is officially over. It ended at 9am Pacific Daylight Time, December 8th. LeapFish has adopted Jacob’s wish to attend the ultimate magical theme park in Anaheim California with his family for a week!

Thanks to all of you who have tweeted, put up Facebook Posts & mentioned #makeawish in your blogs. In the end, you helped raise 10 cents per tweet. Due to your support we were able to reach thousands of twitter users nationwide!

Holiday Giving

To help support children in need, LeapFish and its team members adopted the wishes of 41 children this holiday season for JC Penney and the Salvation Army’s Angel Giving Tree. This was the largest number in the CarrAmerica Business Park. Gifts were wrapped and piled under the tree. All the collected presents will be delivered to the children by Santa on the 24th.

Continuing this week, LeapFish is also taking donations for Shepherd’s Gate. Any gently used clothes, non perishable food, toys and books are welcome by the organization.

LeapFish is proud to contribute to these great organizations and improve the lives of Greater Bay Area families.

Traffic Update: LeapFish Still Climbing!

LeapFish is finishing the holiday season with a bang! In just over a week LeapFish has risen over 200 spots! The Alexa rank will continue to skyrocket as LeapFish expands its technology into the New Year.

Launch Update

LeapFish 2.0 is here!

On November 5, 2009, LeapFish unveiled the new multi-media and real-time search, communication, and sharing platform that gives consumers the most convenient, fun, and personalized way to experience and share the traditional and real-time Web – the new “Living Web.”

The new search platform seamlessly combines the ability to search and share real-time and traditional content in any media format in a single interface across a range of different sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Digg).

The new LeapFish search experience offers consumers a real-time search engine, a technically advanced customizable personal homepage, more multi-media results from the entire Web and the ability to share any piece of content found online.

Top Print & Online Publications:

USA Today

Top news authority, USA Today, recently published an article on the future of web search, saying that older search engines simply don’t have the speed to accommodate real-time search.

They describe LeapFish as, “The first site that lets consumers both contribute and search for information in audio and video as well as text”

Media Post

MediaPost, a top online media, marketing and advertising news site, covered the launch of LeapFish 2.0 on November 5th, 2009, calling it “iGoogle with a social twist.”

Some of their highlighted features include; customizing your homepage, the real-time search option, toggling between search engine feeds, and the sharing options of LeapFish search results.

The Guardian

LeapFish was recently mentioned in an article featured by The Guardian. In the article titled, “Why I’m Searching Beyond Google,” the author explains how new search engines like LeapFish are cornering the market with new technology.

Search Engine Journal

Earlier this week, Search Engine Journal published an informative article about the brand new features of LeapFish 2.0, stating, “There’s so much buzz around it that I found it necessary to review the tool here and discuss it with our SEJ community.”

The search engine news site covered all aspects of the new page, making it easy for newcomers to see the benefits of LeapFish!

SEM Synergy

SEM Synergy, a weekly podcast on WebmasterRadio.fm, recently featured an interview with CEO Ben Behrouzi, addressing the significant changes on the Web in the past few years.

The broadcast covered the current state of the Web, consumer behavior and LeapFish’s new offering in the Search space.

Bub.blicio.us

Bub.blicio.us, a Web 2.0 news blog, covered LeapFish and its new social and real-time search features. They stated that,“LeapFish is hoping to become an invaluable hub for information and sharing.”

The article talks about the integrated sharing feature for all content and search results to major social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg and more.

LeapFish in the Social Media Community:

LeapFish is constantly trying to find creative ways to engage with people in social media. To promote the launch of LeapFish 2.0, special, one of a kind surfboards were made for a selection of social media “celebrities.”

Already the boards have received an incredible response. Twilebrity, Chris Pirillo, created a feature on his popular website to show his excitement for his new surfboard and also to promote LeapFish.

Check out the video on his website!

LeapFish Sponsors Tweet-A-Cause for Make-A-Wish:

LeapFish realizes social media is a powerful outlet for raising awareness and gaining support. Using social media, LeapFish and Make-A-Wish have teamed up to help send Jacob, an ill child, and his family to Disneyland!

The cause has already gained support from celebrities such as LeAnn Rimes, Audrina Pattridge, and Alyssa Milano. Popular social media figures like Chris Pirillo and Ben Parr have also contributed to the cause.

Make sure to Tweet and make your contribution to Tweet-A-Cause

Summer Update

New Product Release! The latest release, LeapFish 2.0, will allow users to access, command and interact with the web, experiencing real time search, videos, images, shopping and more. The LeapFish Team is already planning the highly anticipated launch and is very excited by the initial response from top media publications. Several exclusive demos with top media publications have already been scheduled and it’s only a matter of time before the world experiences Search 2.0.

Top Print & Online Publications:

Search Cowboys

Search Cowboys, a top search engine news publication, connected with LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi to capture the difference between the future of LeapFish and that of traditional meta engines and aggregators. The interview resulted in a very informative Q&A session reflecting the developmental trajectory of LeapFish.

LeapFish Affiliate Program:

The LeapFish Affiliate Program is LIVE! The highly anticipated LeapFish Affiliate Program was released this Summer and the response has exceeded our expectations! The Affiliate Program empowers thousands of bloggers, publishers and LeapFish supporters with the ability to integrate LeapFish search within their on websites and blogs. The release of the affiliate program adds an additional avenue in the overall marketing and branding initiative behind LeapFish. A healthy growth trajectory in affiliate integrations and widget installation has translated into exponential gains in reach & traffic.

LeapFish: Useful & Unique

LeapFish users are digging deeper & staying longer surpassing top MetaCrawlers & Aggregators! LeapFish is far from being the typical search aggregator or meta-crawler as seen in the graph to the left. Leapfish users stay longer and access more data than ever before! Typical aggregators/meta-crawlers simply pull in search results from Google Yahoo and MSN. LeapFish is a multimedia search, combining videos, news, images, blogs, and a growing list of popular information sources online. Users are staying longer and digging deeper due to the increasing amount of relevant information that is readily available.

Traffic Rankings:

LeapFish broke 20K on Alexa this week and our traffic is skyrocketing! LeapFish is now ranked 19,826 in the world and our traffic continues to climb! this is incredible given that LeapFish launched less than a year ago and we have yet to launch LeapFish 2.0!

Enhancements to LeapFish Search Engine:

LeapFish is pushing Search to 2.0 with Twitter Trends! One of the greatest things about Twitter is that it is a great place to track emerging trends. When major events or big stories occur it will occasionally hit Twitter Trends prior to hitting major news outlets, people tweet about it then the story inevitably ends up as a top trend. Leapfish continues to push search to 2.0 with sophisticated real time search functionality. Now you can access Twitter Trends as they occur from the convience of your Leapfish Homepage.

May Update

May has been a month of recognition for LeapFish and for LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi. LeapFish was selected as a Finalist for the 2009 American Business Awards ‘Stevie Award’ for Best Interface Design. More than 2,600 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories. The American Business Awards is the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business. LeapFish was selected by business professionals nationwide during more than five weeks of judging. Shortly after the finalist nomination LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi attended the Silicon Valley Business Journal Top 40 under 40 Ceremony. The prestigious 40 under 40 recognizing the top 40 innovators in Silicon Valley has recognized Ben Behrouzi for consistent innovation over the last 10 years. Ben Behrouzi was selected alongside Google Vice President of Search Products Marissa Mayer & was listed on the first page of the ten page article published on May 22nd.

Top Print & Online Publications:

Internet Evolution

Internet Evolution a premier online news publication, took the time to discuss how LeapFish is pioneering Search 2.0 by combining the best of the web in one familiar Interface.

Channel Web

Channel Web, a leader in Social Media news came across LeapFish while reviewing the recently launched search engine, Wolfram Alpha. Channel Web stated that the Speed and clean interface make LeapFish easy and pleasant to use.

New LeapFish Media:

A series of educational videos were released in May featuring Leapfish CEO Ben Behrouzi. This series of videos focuses on LeapFish pioneering Search 2.0 & the LeapFish Value Proposition. Leapfish is more than just a simple aggregator that displays websites from other search engines. LeapFish is a multimedia search engine that combines and renders the best of the web in the form of videos, news, images, blogs and popular information sources online. This series speaks to that difference. The series can be found on the LeapFish Youtube Channel and under the Video Section on the LeapFish Blog.

April Update

LeapFish had a very exciting month in April. The LeapFish Team attended the Web 2.0 Expo and Ad:Tech Conventions in San Francisco, CA. Leapfish had several interviews with top technology online news resources; Internet Evolution, Dow Jones Venture Beat, Information Week, Internet Evolution, FastCompany Magazine & The Madison Avenue Journal. LeapFish also met with FastCompany Magazine while attending Ad:Tech, meeting Noah Robischon, the Online Executive Editor, and others on the FastCompany Team.

Top Print & Online Publications:

Alt Search Engines

Alt Search Engines, a premier search engine review site, has posted a new video about LeapFish. They have posted numerous articles about LeapFish since the launch in November 2008.

PC World

LeapFish was given a Lab Tour and Editor Review at the PC World Offices in San Francisco. LeapFish can now be seen in the June Issue of PC World Magazine.

SEOMoz

SEOmoz a leader in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing wrote a weekly round up piece about the Popular Free Domain Appraisal Widget that LeapFish recently launched.

Another Historic Alexa Milestone is Passed:

The LeapFish Alexa Rank has climbed steadily since launching in November of 2008. In 5 short months LeapFish has risen from an Alexa ranking of over 100,000 (Alexa only recognizes the top 1% online and will not rank you unless you pass 100,000 in ranking) to a new high of 29,834 worldwide traffic rank (breaking 30,000) and a rank of 8,584 in the United States. Our Domestic Ranking in the US indicates that we have passed other top search engines such as Cuil.com, MetaCrawler and many more.

Enhancements to LeapFish Search Engine:

LeapFish is developing relationships with more than 200 leading online authorities in search, news, imagery, videos, real estate and others to continue to capture more of the growing web’s variety. Another widget was added to the growing LeapFish group of online authorities;

Local Reviews Powered by Yelp API

LeapFish continues to launch powerful data widgets. The newest addition is the Yelp Local Review Widget. Enter a city, state and any local service and LeapFish will automatically generate 3 local business listings with ratings and reviews. Yelp – Covering 24 city editions, Yelp helps people find businesses, events, special offers and other listings, with reviews from over 5 million Yelp Users. Example: Type in “Thai Food San Francisco CA” and you will see a local review show up to the right of your Search Results.

Awards:

Tri-Valley Innovation Network nominated LeapFish for their Innovators award. This award is for local entrepreneurs that are on the rise, and continue to innovate in the Marketplace. Tri-Valley Innovation Network also took the time to stop by the LeapFish Headquarters to interview LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi.

Analyst Interviews:

IDC, Forrester and Kiplinger interviewed Ben Behrouzi, LeapFish CEO, about the way LeapFish finds and displays rich media information and has an advertising model that is allowing advertisers the opportunity to own positions within the LeapFish search results as opposed to high PPC Costs. All 3 are premier global providers of market intelligence,advisory services, and events for information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.

March Update

LeapFish had a very exciting month of March. In 5 short months LeapFish has passed some of the Top Search Engines according to Alexa.com’s Domestic traffic rankings. LeapFish has passed Cuil (previous Google engine developers), Powerset (now owned by MSN, HotBot (owned by Lycos), MetaCrawler (owned by Dogpile) and many more… Alexa has built an unparalleled database of information about sites that includes, statistics, related links and more. Growth on Alexa translates into more returning and unique visitors. People continue to try LeapFish and of those a majority continue to use LeapFish on a daily basis. This Loyalty has propelled LeapFish to new heights while gaining recognition in the media. Below you will see a few examples of our increased recognition online and offline.

Top Online & Print Publications:

Entrepreneur

LeapFish was highlighted in Entrepreneur Magazine as a New Way to Search. Entrepreneur Magazine is the Premier Resource for Business Owners & Entrepreneurs across the Nation.

Mashable.com

LeapFish was featured as a part of Mashable.com’s Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft. The Spark of Genius series highlights start ups with innovative groundbreaking technology. Mashable.com is a leading resource for all the is new online and is one of the Alexa Top 1,000 Sites online, Alexa currently ranks over 200 Million Websites Worldwide!

Bay Area News Group

David Morrill, Technology Reporter for the Bay Area News Group visited LeapFish in March and published a Front Page article on March 16th. The Bay Area News Group reaches over 1.9 Million Readers a day with 30 Million Monthly page views. Since Silicon Valley is the epicenter for innovation Publications like USA Today picked up the story as well!

LeapFish on Top Social Media Websites:

• CMS Wire – Rapidly Growing Web Magazine dedicated to new groundbreaking tech related news.
• Pandia Search Engine News – Premier Search Engine News Site.
• Media Post, Online Media Daily – Top Online Newsletter with over 100,000 active Subscribers.

Enhancements to LeapFish Search Engine:

LeapFish is developing relationships with more than 200 leading online authorities in search, news, imagery, videos, real estate and others to continue to capture more of the growing web’s variety. Below you will see 2 new authorities added this month. This is only the beginning!

Free Domain Name Appraisal Service

LeapFish has re-launched its popular free domain name appraisal service. Due to high consumer and fan demand, the LeapFish Development Team has revamped the domain appraisal system making it more attractive to users. Example: Type in “flickr.com , flickr.net, www.flickr.com , or www.flickr.net and you will see a free domain appraisal widget show up to the right of your results.

Free Real Estate Evaluation Service

LeapFish is taking search to the next level. You can easily type in a “city & State” or an “address” and instantaneously you will see an up to date Real Estate Evaluation from Cyber Homes. Example: Type in “4577 Brannigan St. Dublin, Ca” and you will see a free evaluation widget show up to the right of your search results. Example 2: Type in “Miami, Fl” and you will see a Free Market Evaluation for that are to the right of your search results.

LeapFish in the Community:

LeapFish is working with the San Francisco Chapter of St. Jude’s Research Hospital to set up several Sponsorship opportunities to give back to the Children and Community. LeapFish will be sponsoring a prize at the St. Jude Dream Giveaway. On June 21st St. Jude is giving $250,000.00 to a lucky winner and LeapFish will also be giving away a brand new Playstation 3 with Blue Ray and a flat screen tv.