Cuil.com - The “Cool” New Search Engine?
Cuil (pronounced “cool”) is a new search engine by ex-googler Anna Patterson. Cuil launched late last night with the very lofty claim to have a larger index than Google with over 120 Billion web pages in it’s database(s). However, bigger doesn’t always mean better.
After using Cuil for a few hours throughout the day, I found some good things, some bad things, and some things I couldn’t find at all. It appears that Cuil does very well at overall subjects or concepts, but seems to miss the point if you’re looking for something specific. The following paragraphs will go into a little more details of my initial impressions and findings. Read further and find out for yourself how it stacks up.
Seeing the Forest - Ignoring the Trees.
When I first tried Cuil, I took the vanity route and did a search for my site: Addoursearch.com. Even with the “.com” at the end - basically TELLING the search engine exactly what I was looking for - it still did not return the site anywhere in the results. Instead it focused on a few obscure references in different “2.0″ catalog sites, a few blog reviews, and even a few pages that didn’t have anything to do our service. So, it wasn’t very encouraging right out the gate.
Like I said, this is a very vain approach to a test and by no means a perfect example of it’s full potential, but it does bring up a concern. If I’m giving some pretty specific instructions as to what I’m looking for, not to mention if the majority of sites in the results are POINTING to my domain, shouldn’t the first result be that domain? Now, you could give the argument that my site is relatively new (less than 2mo old from launch). But, at the same time, all the posts are older than the source.
To further put the site through it’s paces, I asked Cuil a very common, everyday type of question: “how to tie a necktie”… Nothing. Not even one result.
The did give me a few suggestions:
Cuil Screenshot: "How to Tie a Necktie"
1) A typo. Please check your spelling. (Shouldn’t it do that for me?)
2) Your search includes a term that is very rare. Try to find a more common substitute. (Really? Google has over 2 MILLION results, plus video and images on the same search)
3) Too many search terms. Please try fewer terms.
Ok, so I tried the last suggestion and did a search for “necktie”and there it was.
Finally, something I could use.
It’s Not All bad.
So, based on my initial searches, I found that Cuil doesn’t seem to be too concerned about the details. But on the other hand it does some very “cuil” things with broader subjects.
Keeping on the same subject of a “necktie”, I started by slowly typing in my query into the search box. Right off the bat the auto discovery feature started presenting me with a few common search terms that match what I was typing. A few of these search terms were very interesting and useful to me, but instead I proceeded to the main term of “necktie”.
On the results page of my search I found the site already started organizing different alternative or related searches in the form of tabs and a drop down menu. This approach is very useful if I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for or want to branch out into more details from a main search term.
Another good and useful point to the interface is the format of the information. Most search engines will lay out the results in a list, similar to how Google, Yahoo!, and MSN display their results. However, Cuil organizes the results page similar to a magazine format. There’s three columns of information, along with the first picture it finds, a summary paragraph, and also the link to the information. Personally, I find this organization to be very easy on the eyes and promotes a more organized way to view the results. I found myself clicking through the results much more than I would with the larger search engines.
In Closing
All-in-all, I think if Cuil hadn’t gone ahead and made the claim to be “bigger than Google” the site wouldn’t have brought on such harsh citizism it’s currently recieving. In my opinion - as a new search startup - it’s not that bad… just not better than Google. Yet.
Via: TechCrunch
