Topic: Cuil - New Search Engine to rival Google

Ex-Google staff launch rival search engine, Cuil

The new site promises better results by scouring a larger index of web pages than Google, but experts are cautious about its prospects

By Jonathan Richards

A group of former Google employees is hoping to outmanouvre their old boss by developing a rival search engine they claim provides a more comprehensive guide to the web. Cuil, which went live today, was built by Anna Patterson, a former Google employee who helped create the company's index - the enormous catalogue of web pages which its scours every time someone conducts a query.

Speaking before the launch of Cuil, which is pronounced 'cool', Ms Patterson said that one of the main reasons rival search engines such as Microsoft Windows Live and Yahoo! had struggled was because they weren't able to index as many pages as Google. Cuil had solved that problem by compiling an index three times as large as Google's - searching for results across 120 billion web pages compared with Google's index of 40 billion pages, she said. Google does not reveal how large its index is, but in a statement today said that it welcomed competition, which "stimulates innovation and provides users with more choice."

Rather than displaying results in a list, like Google, Cuil shows them on a page which has a more magazine-like feel. Each result has a greater amount of text alongside it, and sometimes an image as well. "You can't be an alternative search engine and smaller," Mr Patterson was quoted as saying. "You have to be alternative and bigger."

Several large and deep-pocketed rival engines have sought to reel in Google - the runaway leader in search - but none has succeeded. Last month, Google performed 82 per cent of searches in the UK last month, according to Nielsen Online, compared with 5 per cent for Yahoo!, 4 per cent for Microsoft's Windows Live Search, and 3 per cent for Ask.com. Internet experts gave a cautious welcome to the new service today, saying the promise of a larger index of web pages was appealing but that there would likely be some teething problems as the service found its feet. Ultimately Cuil's popularity would be determined by the relevance of results, they said.

“This is the most promising thing I’ve seen in a while,” Danny Sullivan, editor of the Search Engine Land blog was quoted as saying. "Whether they are going to threaten Microsoft, much less Google - that's another story."
Based on an hour's trial, Michael Arrington, author of the technology blog TechCrunch, said that Cuil was an "excellent search engine" but that it didn't appear to have "the depth of results that Google has." He added that the results on Cuil were also less relevant, but that the engine had a 'related query' box which enabled the user to refine their query very effectively.
"Cuil does a good job of guessing what we'll want next," he said.

Drew Broomhall, search editor of Times Online, said: "It's about time people starting experiencing different ways of seeing search results. Even Google presents them in a fairly limited way." "The big factors will be how quickly they can get fresh content such as breaking news into the search results, and how they deal with spam, where websites try to trick search engines into thinking they are more relevant than they are." The site was periodically unavailable in the UK today.

Cuil, which is based in Menlo Park, near San Francisco, has raised $33 million from venture capital investors. As well as Ms Patterson, its founding team includes her husband, Tom Costello, who developed search technology for the computing giant IBM, and two other former Google engineers - Russell Power, who worked on the same team as Ms Patterson, and Louis Monier, who was also the chief technology officer at Alta Vista, one of the most popular pre-Google search engines.

A number of start-ups have attempted to lure users away from Google with new ways of searching, including Teoma, whose technology was incorporated into Ask.com, and Powerset, which pioneered "natural language search" - the ability to respond to questions and other sentences - and which was acquired by Microsoft earlier this month.

The game is on and I like it search it HERE

Wacha tuijaribu maanake wengi wamekuja na vi search engine vyao fake

am sure this will work out..

Nimeijaribu tangu juzi, not impressed.Halafu that dark shyt is not for me.Reminds me of anorexic punk rockers and fake gory movie lovers.

wangeitoa hiyo rangi nyeusi.... utadhani mtu unasearch site ya pono...

The opening page its a bit funny...you dont have enough options kama search engine nyingine...

For exaple google or yahoo, you have lot options..on the opening page i.e web, images,maps,news,shopping,mail ,video,groups,books e.tc..and with 'em you can easly go back and seach again without breaking b*lls.

Cuil people need to go back to labs.

Hiyo Cuil haina lolote. Haiwezi kufua dafu kwa google. Hawakujiandaa vema kabla ya kuianzisha

Haivutii sana,ila ngoja tuicheck check.
Hawa jamaa wanatumia hii mbinu kujitambulisha tu! ila bado hawako that good

Vijana acheni uzembe kufikiri...ukianzisha kitu unahitaji kuwa sawa na Mwingine? au nyie ndio wale wenye thinking za kuwa "HATUWEZI" ...au mshazoea kopy na paste style?....binafsi naipenda Google, lkn still hawa Jamaa wa Cuil wata grow tu as Google did? kwani Google hizo Options walikuwa nazo toka mwanzo? Walikuwa wanamove kadri siku zinavyokwenda Mbele....

Pia Ogopeni sawa Ex-employee....Wale wanaosome Security watakubaliana nami.

Duniani tuna utamaduni kuwa kitu kipya watu wanaogopa kutumia...umewaona wangapi wakiiponda VISTA?...pia tuna culture ya kutokubali mabadiliko...like CCM wanavyoogpa Mabadiliko....WE NEED CHANGE....Hatutaki MONOPOLISM

Watch this page,

I predict Cuil will fade into oblivion.

Pundit...hakuna aliefikiria kuwa kuna Giant atakuja kuwa-beat Yahoo au Microsoft....hata boss wa yahoo awali aliwadharau Jamaa wa Google, lkn what happened?

Bahati Nzuri wenzetu wanapokuwa Vyuoni wanafikiria ku-develop something new...sie tukiwa Vyuoni...wajua tunafikiria nini.... Ukiwa Ulaya unasoma unakwenda mbio ufanye kazi uwasaidie nduguzo...mda gani wa kufikiria? ukiwa Bongo ndo kabisaa...kuanza migomo, kujazana wanafunzi darasani, vifaa na competency ya waalim wetu...Waalim wetu nao wanafikiria kufundisha Tuition zao town kama sekondari ili kujiongezea kipato...na wengine wamekuwa na Miradi ya Daladala kama wazee walistaafishwa Makazini!!! muda gani watafikiri ku-innovate

thanks for introduction, I've tried it...but not impressed, going back to google I wish them all the best in making it better, I think of it very positively though