Cuil - The New Search Monster in Town
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A new search engine launched last week claims to have the biggest indexed directory on the web and Google in it’s sights. Cuil (pronounced COOL) was founded by a small team of people with great credentials; some are ex-Google search experts. It claims to be different by indexing web sites based on content and relevance as opposed to superficial popularity (that’ll be Google, then). It’s index certainly is massive - 3 times bigger than Google and 10 times that of Microsoft, but does it deliver? It also claims that it doesn’t collect information on its users’ search histories or IP addresses. Does this make it worth using?
At first glance it does look very Web 2.0; clean, corporate, minimal. On the day of it’s launch many users claimed that it produced no relevant results for obvious searches - such as corporation and city names however many have applauded it’s accuracy.
Features
Cuil pivots upon these unique traits:
- Big (the biggest) web index
- Unique relevance algorithm
- Unique results display
- Privacy
Searching and Results
As you enter terms into the search box you will notice the very fast auto-suggest feature that is similar to that found on the Google Browser Toolbar but this one does not attempt to correct your spelling. The subsequent results page takes a bit of getting used to as less results are displayed but it does show a more in-depth description (well, just unabridged) for each result. Results can be displayed in a 2 or 3 column format, changed by the click of a link. Often results are accompanied by a small image from the web site but this is not a dedicated image search.
A filtering tabs bar appears above your textual results and these links take you to further targeted results. In addition, a categories box floats to the right of the page and when you hover the mouse over the titles a panel with relevant links slides down. When you hover over these links, a small tooltip description is displayed. These links however do not take you to web pages, but give you a more in-depth search.
Safer Searching
As stated previously, one of the big ’selling points’ of the engine is it’s privacy considerations. It does not collect information about you and doesn’t then throw ads in your face based upon your browsing habits. Also It’s safe search (content) filter option is on by default but this feature is popular in other engines.
Summary
Cuil is brand new and needs some more time to bed-in and settle down. It won’t pip Google for some time yet, maybe even years but I can see it becoming one of the top five search monsters. The results panel takes some getting used (it is quite hard to scan) to but after using it for a while you will find that the deep search categories that it suggests can be quite useful. Compared to others it is quite feature-less (no dedicated image search, maps or other tools) but if you like your mobile phones without cameras then Cuil may be just your cup of tea.
Tell us what you think below.
Further Opinion:
Google beats Cuil hands down - TechCrunch
Cuil: Good, But Not Great - ReadWriteWeb
New Search Engine Cuil Takes Aim At Google - Slashdot
Tags: Cuil, Google, Search Engines
Popularity: 3% [?]
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