LeapFish Tries To Make A Big Splash
Still officially labeled beta, we briefly experimented with LeapFish and liked what we saw. Although aggregator sites aren't new, its speed and clean interface make LeapFish easy and pleasant to use. With the tagline "Just Type It," the search field is originally filled in gray text with the reassuring "It's ok, you're not cheating on Google..."
To start a search, users simply follow the tagline and -- just type it. As the query is entered into the search box, results automatically begin to appear with Web results on the left side and blog results underneath them, refreshing as each additional letter is typed. The right side of the screen displays results for news, video and images. There are also pertinent links for shopping and answers using eBay and Yahoo answers, respectively.
One feature we really liked is being able to watch the video results (which appear to be from YouTube) simply by hovering the cursor over the window.
As an aggregator, results aren't limited to Google; Radio buttons at the top of the page allow the user to quickly switch among Yahoo and MSN also. With a simple mouse click, the new results appear instantly.
Late last year, there was an accusation that an overzealous member of LeapFish's sales team used click fraud to push ad sales. Ben Behrouzi, CEO of LeapFish's parent company, DotNext, responded that this was the work of a single bad apple that has been dealt with accordingly.
We don't know all the details revolving around that case, but as far as searching the Web goes, we like the functionality the site offers.