New Search Engine Cuil
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A new search engine, Cuil, was launched recently and it claims to index 3 times as many pages as Google and 11 times as many pages as Microsoft. There has been a lot of buzz around the blogs with the new search engine. It got me thinking, what’s it going to take in order to beat someone like Google. Google has become the household name and I think the majority of people still use it as a search engine.
I figured I would give Cuil and shot and see what all the buzz was about. I have some mixed feelings about it. In some of the searches I performed, the actual search results were okay. I think I am happier with the results that both Google and Yahoo show. Also I noticed in some posts they have thumbnail images. Some of the images have nothing to do with the article and I’m just wondering where they even came from. They don’t even appear in the article body at all. For example, I searched for “apple” and I expected results from Apple Computer and those showed up. One result was for the Apple Cinema display, but it had a thumbnail of the iPod Touch.
The two and three column layouts are kind of cool, but a little unusual. I think it takes some time to get used to, but I don’t find that it helps or hurts the ability to search.
I like that they have tab recommendations and also category recommendations. The other search engines have this as well, but I think it is layed out well and sometimes I find that it’s not prominent enough on other sites. I think Ask does the best job of making the feature easy to use, but Cuil does a good job as well.
Overall I think I could use this search engine, but I think I am much happier with Google results. I’ve found that I’ve built up a comprehensive del.icio.us bookmark list and find that I can find most new information through those channels. Usually when I looks for businesses or restaurants I use Google maps as opposed to a search engine like I had in the past. So as of right now I’ll just stick to what I’m already doing.