Is Leapfish, Search's Missing Link?

Many have tried, but it's been over a decade and none have succeeded in out-Googlin' Google. Yet here we go again, with yet another search engine entering stage right trying to capture our "attention-deficit" attention. Repackaging online search as something new infers the Web has evolved. And while real-time and social search have certainly changed the alchemy of search, what does Leapfish know that has eluded Google et al?

On November 5, a Reuters' press release announced an unveiling of a "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.'

Sounds intriguing!

The company's YouTube promo pitch released two days prior indicated, "Leapfish is an evolved search engine that provides a single, connected, multimedia experience for both searching and sharing traditional, social and real-time content making the new web easier to navigate, more integrated and ultimately more efficient."

Their video is an exciting "Hollywood-like" production piece that will certainly get your juices going...



But in actually taking their Web site out for a trial run, I don't see Leapfish as the missing link in the search engine evolutionary process.

Since real-time search is the illusive search component that has eluded Google and Bing, and since Leapfish's press says they have the appropriate bait to land it, I conducted a very simple test. I "Leapfished" myself using their real-time results tab. However, as this screen shot indicates the closest they could get to gathering any real-time data on me was a tweet I tweeted 21 hours prior.

Since I tweeted several times just before I did the test, I found it odd that Leapfish could not capture my Twitterstream in real-time, when so many APIs today are proficient at doing so.

My next test was to see if my InventorSpot news stories could be found on Google. As you can see, I had a series of stories that surfaced on the NEWS results page of Google.

Google's News Results for Ron Callari - November 5, 2009

When I searched in a similar fashion on Leapfish, I received "NO RESULTS."


Leapfish News results for Ron Callari - November 5, 2009

So is Leapfish ready for prime time? I think it's a work in progress. I do think while it's on the right track, it still has a major learning curve to work through. A better approach might have been to spend a little more time in their beta stage of development, instead of announcing to the world they were the next new shiny thing. So while I can't give them any points for being the missing link, I do think their headed down the right evolutionary path.

If anyone has any thoughts to the contrary, please let me know. As Charles Darwin once said, "I love fools’ experiments. I am always making them."  And so do I.