About a year ago TechCrunch, world’s leading technology blog, wrote about threats of click fraud LeapFish employee used to intimidate potential clients into advertising on a newly launched meta search aggregator. The CEO of LeapFish, Ben Behrouzi, fired back with an emotional response, in which he seems to be “calling out” TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters for being “irresponsible and distasteful”. The original post appeared on February 4, 2009 at www.benbehrouzi.org – what seams to be personal blog of the CEO of LeapFish.

The rebuttal was taken down some time at the beginning of this year, 2010. The link http://www.benbehrouzi.org/2009/02/04/leapfish-gets-second-lashing-from-techcrunc/ seams to point to a page that no longer exists. The rebuttal was referenced by “online authorities” like Wikipedia.

It is possible that the post containing the rebuttal was taken by mistake. But in case it was taken on purpose, bellow is the copy of the original post minus the updates:

LeapFish Gets Second Lashing, Beginning to Think TechCrunch Just Doesn’t Like Us

Today TechCrunch covered LeapFish for the second time, but unfortunately they again did not focus on the engine itself or its future. Instead of discussing our new click free search technology or our recent increase in traffic, or the sheer number of advertisers/investors that have joined the program, Techcrunch made news out of an irresponsible act committed by 1 out of 80 sales representatives that we employ and set us up for ridcule instead. I was very disappointed at the way they handled this to say the least.

I’m beginning to think they just don’t like us. I hope I’m wrong. I did offer the following response, which I haven’t seen posted as of yet.

Robin,

We have completed an investigation and have dealt with the matter appropriately. However frankly put, I am disappointed at this post by you and by TechCrunch. You never contacted us to verify the information you posted or even checked to see what our position was as a company around such behavior before you published. You apparently called in but didn’t make the effort of speaking with someone about this. Frankly put, I find your post’s title and content irresponsible and distasteful. Nevertheless, I apologize for the poor choice in judgment by one of our sales representatives and we want your readers to know that we took swift and immediate action to correct the matter.

Additionally, we have called, spoken to and offered a sincere apology to the prospect that was mistreated. We have expressed our regret and embarrassment over the situation. We have also offered to pay restitution for any fees the prospect incurred and will cover any damages. Additionally, we will be offering a gift of a keyword of the prospect’s choice as a further sign of our apologetic stance.

Let me clearly state, that LeapFish has a 0 tolerance policy for the behavior described and in no way, shape or form endorses the behavior whatsoever. Our sales staff is not coached nor encouraged to engage in such tactics and this is a regrettable act by a single individual who exercised poor judgment using personal email accounts. Our entire sales staff has been met with and spoken to and been firmly reminded that we do not engage in such tactics nor will we tolerate it whatsoever.

Robin, I find your post unfair and damaging, but I harbor no ill will towards you and I hope that one day one of your posts will actually give fair attention to our true offering and features, as provided by Silicon Valley’s MercuryNews and the thousands of visitors, supporters, investors and advertisers of LeapFish.

I would be more than happy to discuss with you why LeapFish has a bright future, the real business model, its time horizon for delivering ROI and the expectations communicated to our thousands of advertisers/investors.

Thanks again.

Best,
Ben Behrouzi
CEO
DotNext Inc.

I personally have no interest in Wikipedia, but if you are a fan, you should make an attempt to correct the reference #8 on the following page – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeapFish

If you are interested to find out more about LeapFish I highly recommend LeapFish Review by Better Business Bureau.

Update: The new LeapFish has finally launched. You can read my analysis on LeapFish implementation of framesets and how confusing it can be for users.

After rather a painful year LeapFish.com- a meta search aggregator site just like Dogpile.com or Mamma.com, is ready to launch what they call it “LeapFish 2.0″- claiming that it will solve the real-time search.

Believe it or not I, of all people, was on of the “few privileged” to view their “test” products. However I could not keep quiet about my discovery:

And of course LeapFish killed that subdomain few minutes after my “Twitter broadcast”. Did they find my viewing of their new product not welcomed? Or is it also possible I “tuned in” at the end of the exhibit of their product to their supporters? I will never find out.

The new design has many flaws and way too many Ajax widgets- it felt as I was looking at the dashboard of WordPress. It will cause a huge load time issues if released as it was seen by me yesterday. Sometimes less means more. The notion that LeapFish will solve the real-time search is a myth to say the least. It is no briner that search engine gurus like Danny Sullivan would never consider LeapFish as contender to solve the real-time search problems.

If you have never heard of LeapFish.com before here is a short history rundown…..

LeapFish launched about a year ago and was given a somewhat cold shoulder by TechChrunch. Instead of trying to appeal to the hearts and minds of the technology and online marketing crowd they were focused on their business more and got caught with their “pants down” by the same TechChrunch. After firing the employee who engage in the alleged click fraud described by TechChrunch, the leapfish CEO still tried to blame TechChurnch for disliking LeapFish:

I am disappointed at this post by you and by TechCrunch. You never contacted us to verify the information you posted or even checked to see what our position was as a company around such behavior before you published. You apparently called in but didn’t make the effort of speaking with someone about this. Frankly put, I find your post’s title and content irresponsible and distasteful. – Ben Behrouzi, CEO of LeapFish (you can find the full text of his rebuttal at http://www.benbehrouzi.org/2009/02/04/leapfish-gets-second-lashing-from-techcrunc/ - apologies to my readers for not providing a click-able link).

Dealing with criticism in an adult matter is not a virtue of LeapFish, instead CEO of LeapFish decided to go on a domain shopping spree – threatening to expose the “real’ Vlad Zablotskyy. I have to say that I am surprised they never threatened to sue TechChrunch- or Michael Arrington just laughed at the threat if they did in fact receive one. However is I was Robin Wauters I would make sure I own forever the .org .net and other variations of his name.

But the past is just that- the past. The true test for the company will be the future and in particular next few weeks and months. The first advertisers and investors are about to reach their first anniversary and their credit cards will be charged the renewal fee- it will trigger many to reexamine their “investement” in LeapFish. It would be in LeapFish best interest to have as few disappointed “investors” and “advertisers” as possible, and the only way to do so is to send your advertiser top quality traffic. While they may have been successful in selling their inventory (keywords)- the increase in traffic was and is disproportionately slow. Even the most favorable statistics from Compete.com (showing LeapFish as having almost 500,000 visitors in September)- do not justify an investment of $1,000+. Especially if LeapFish.com indeed has “hundreds” of advertisers in their system. I will do some math about LeapFish statistics in the upcoming posts. I doubt however the launch of their new product will stop the upcoming wave of dissatisfied clients- for LeapFish’s own sake and their future I hope I am wrong. Nor do I think this upcoming launch will bring the necessary volume of traffic to justify the price of advertising. Again I hope LeapFish proves me and other critics wrong for their own good.

If they don’t take drastic measures to purchase or otherwise increase traffic to their site- LeapFish, or at least their business model, will not survive beyond 2009.

If you are interested to find out more about LeapFish I highly recommend LeapFish Review by Better Business Bureau.

Disclosure: Everything written above is my personal opinion and my interpretation of events as I see them. You are free to form your own opinion which may or may not agree with the above post. You are however asked to show some manners (aka “being polite”) if you decide to leave comment below. The comments from LeapFish management will be moderated and may be removed if I find them inappropriate.

In my opinion, certain rumours are better left unchallenged. And certain facts better not be construed as rumours.

On his personal blog, Ben Behrouzi, the CEO of LeapFish, made an attempt to shed light on some rumours that, supposedly, are circulating around internet about him and his companies.

One particular rumour concerns me exclusively, unless of course Mr. Behrouzi attempted to sue other bloggers, of which I have no knowledge.

Mr. Behrouzi claims he never sued a blogger:

Rumor # 4 : Ben Behrouzi Sued a Blogger to Stop His Free Speech

False. We sued not a blogger, but a single individual, who was seriously defaming our company to get attention for himself. Godfather himself would be proud. The case was reviewed by both lawyers, the individual’s response was heard and without getting into the details of the settlement, the individual posted a letter of retraction.

Take a look at a different case and the reality of this problem facing the legal system : http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-10-internet-defamation-case_x.htm

Part of Mr. Behrouzi explanation is right on the money. His attorney assured me that they did not sue me to hinder my right to free speech, which I clearly stated in the retraction letter:

Regarding the subject of free speech, ePERKS has expressed to me that it is a strong advocate of free speech and it was never its intent or desire to impede on healthy debate and feedback from the public. Until I have reason to believe differently, I have decided to take ePERKS word on this.

I still take their word on this, since I have no reason to believe differently yet.

The individual they sued, which happens to be me, has several blogs where he publishes posts on a rather regular basis, is a member of many online groups for bloggers and even regarded by leading bloggers as a blogger. So yes I see it as a failed attempt of rumour control Mr. Behrouzi. I am a blogger, and your opinion will not changed that fact. So the fact is that you did sue a blogger. The irony is that I consider you a blogger as well, albeit, to borrow your own word, a rogue one…

Godfather himself would be proud?!! Ben, are you referring to the well known movie? If so, shall I remind my readers who really sounds like one of the characters in that movie? Here it is, the message you left for an employee who worked for you at one of your companies – Reply.com:

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Quiet an opposite from the likeable personality we have seen in the interview with Robert Scoble and even some TV networks.

As for the rest of Mr. Behrouzi explanation regarding the lawsuit I would rather refer my readers to read the retraction letter itself.

UPDATE: On March 13, a comment was posted by the Marketing Director of LeapFish. The comment was clearly written to provoke an angry reaction and, in my opinion, is a part of their strategy to build another lawsuit against me. This comment perhaps was written by their attorney as it shows lack of understanding what is Twitter and that every one is free to post as they wish including CEO of ePerks and LeapFish.

As for ongoing effort by Mr. Behrouzi to interpret and disclose the terms of the settlement between me and ePerks, I am starting to believe they have never intended to live up to the terms of the settlement.

Below is the comment that was left by Marketing Director:

Vlad, This has nothing to do with LeapFish. It doesn’t take much to do a search and see the sheer number of attacks you have brought upon Ben, from consecutive blogs posts that attack Ben for the last several months, the consistent badgering of LeapFish prospects on Twitter, the immense number of hateful comments all over the Internet on other blogs working to destroy Ben.
Also, the mountain of erroneous information that you post but do not correct once informed, the rumor mongering and comments to as many high level journalists/bloggers, and the several emails you have personally sent to me about removing comments that actually point out your intention and agenda. Vlad, if that is blogging and if that is a blogger, then the web is in need of an overhaul. But I can tell you that intelligent people can see right through what you are doing. I highly suggest you read about Yellow Journalism and the immense problems facing the web and hard working business people online. The hard workers that are continuing to dig, create value and get better even in this economy. Regarding the Reply.com voicemail, we all know Ben was all but 23 at the time and people make mistakes when under the kinds of pressure created by the situation such as the one in that voicemail. It’s that simple. If you ever actually met Ben, you would understand the work ethic and integrity of this individual, regardless of what a “blogger” or “others” might want to force onto you. You are continuing to badger, incite, bring up old information and even post about things that happened many years ago. People have moved on Vlad, why haven’t you? The past is done; we learn and then move on. Instead of working to tear people down, I suggest you find a way to create value and help people out during this tough economic period. This is my one and only response to this post. You can read about the rumors by visiting benbehrouzi.org Mark Kithcart

I did block several IP addresses to prevent any one from LeapFish to comment on my blog until the time they will begin to show some manners.

I was trying hard not to add more embarrassment to the situation surrounding company called LeapFsih.com.

In fact I made several attempts to avoid writing this this post my. I have e-mailed LeapFish’s legal council as well as their marketing director in hopes that they can convince Mr. Behrouzi to remove two posts he made about me. The first tweet Mr. Behrouzi made shortly after TechCrunch exposed LeapFish eployee for committing click fraud:

The above tweet alleges that I am the author of a comment on TechCrunch. The second tweet (see below) was published on Twitter on the day I e-mail to Mr. Cook, the attorney of DontNexInc, the parent company of LeapFish.

I am not sure what CEO of LeapFish is trying to accomplish besides adding more embarrassment to already an embarrassing situation.

UPDATE, March 5, 2009 10:50 AM: I have received following e-mail from Mark Kithcart, the Marketing Direcotr of LeapFish:

Saw your post Vlad you failed to mention the part about you refusing to speak to me. I’ve been here for about 3 months and all of the history is what it is – history.

I don’t typically go back and dwell on things – that’s what will keep us in the economic state we are experienceing in the U.S.

So saying that and stepping into something that has been created by you and Ben I do find it interesting that you would ask me to tell Ben to remove something but then not want to speak with me as if I’m trying to negotiate with you (your words – not mine).

I try to maintain an objective view as I approach each situation as people are not perfect and mistakes can be made by all sides. But I’m starting to wonder about the validity of what is happening here. Especially you going about it the way you did and talking about tweets that are a month old, making an ultimatum and then saying “I won’t negotiate” when that wasn’t even on the table.

No, Ben is not aware of this email to you from me. And I am NOT going to copy him on it. You involved me now and I have questions as I stated before in my last email to you.

If you want to move forward, not waste your time and move on to more productive activities that can help youself and others as we, as a country, naviagte the terrain – then great. I would like to ask you some questions to see if that is indeed what you desire to do. If it is not and you have an agenda (which I don’t think you do) then we will remain in activities that aren’t going to benefit anyone.

Hope you’re having a great day & I look forward to speaking with you at some level.

Mark Kithcart

Director of Marketing

Mark is absolutely correct. I did refuse to answer any of his questions, and frankly do not think I owe him any answers. I involved you because you are Director of Marketing at DotnextInc, whatever your employees do reflects on your company and it also true about your boss.

UPDATE: March 5, 2009 1:23 PM The CEO of LeapFish continues accuse me of stalking him, in-spite the fact he purchased domain names aimed at “exposing me” although in my opinion the purchase of the domains was truly aimed at damaging my Interpreting and Translating Business.

Ben Behrouzi, the CEO of dying ePerks and LeapFish has registered VladZablotskyy.org domain:

UPDATE: Thanks to a tip from the regular reader I have learned that ePerks and LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi has also registered VladZablotskyy.net:

So what does Behrouzi plans to do with these domains? Probably nothing befitting a CEO of a company. I am curious nevertheless.

In the comments below Behrouzi indicated that he purchased domains to document the “real Vlad Zablotskyy”- smells like cybersquatting to me.

This is not the first time Mr. Behrouzi threatened to ruin some one’s reputation. Back when he worked at at Reply.com, Mr Behrouzi left this message on the phone of his employee:

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Update: Bellow are the links to more LeapFish reviews.

A Brief Tale Of Sleaze- LeapFish should take Rob Shore’s advise and never lie to their potential clients.

Three Scams and Rip-Offs to Report – Kit Eliot describes his “encounter” with LeapFish.

Leapfish Review – Is LeapFish.com an opportunity, scam, or just another meta search site?- short but to the point rundown about advertising on LeapFish- needless to say the author passes on the opportunity to advertise or invest in LeapFIsh.

Leapfish: Google Competitor or Flash In The Pan?- i think it is rather funny, or insane, to think that LeapFish can actually be viewed as Google’s competitor. But it sure makes a good headline. Well put article, a must read.

LeapFish Affiliate Program. Can Giveaways Keep It Afloat?- a post by yours truly. I thought it was a mistake to link their affiliate program to the basic function of their website- the search function. Their widgets also contain SEO friendly links back to their website- my conclusion their affiliate program is really a linking scheme to gain rankings in search engines.

Leapfish is a scam…maybe?- Patrick Sullivan Jr is offering his opinion about leapfish. The blog have attracted number of comments- well worth reading.

LeapFish Sucks- a take on LeapFish by Cole Pannell- a web designer and a SEO professional.

LeapFish.com advertisers beware – yet another account of dealing with LeapFish sale people.