Look Out Google - Here Comes Cuill

[Surf_Dude]

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FLASH! Here is a scoop.

Cuil (pronounced "cool"), a new search engine, just came out tonight, from stealth development.
(I'm sorry that I spelled it wrong in the Title. I lost my mind.)
It consists primarily of 3 former Google engineers.

Here is the news -
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Here is the site -
http://www.cuil.com/

Their tag line is - "Search 121,617,892,992 web pages" - In other words, over 121 BILLION pages.
A search for "a" on Cuil returns 250 results. They limit the SERP results.
A search for "a" on Google returns 21.9 BILLION pages. Google DOESN'T limit the results. (Well, actually they do, to 750-1000 results.)

I spent 5 minutes on it, and I was WOWED!
See ya later. I'm going back right now.

Comment below!
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[jburdon14]

I think this engine is on to something... But they have a long way to go before google will get scared.

[Surf_Dude]

OK. Here is an initial report.

1. For various search terms, I rank very high in Cuil for pages that I rank very high on Google. I am guessing that their algo is extremely similar to Google's algo, due to the similar, and in many cases identical SERP results.<edit>I wish I could find the strikethrough command here, I used the underline instead. The SERPs are WAY different!</edit>

2. They choke on common 3-word queries. "Produced no results", when in fact, there should be tons of them.

3. They also choke on 2-word queries.

4. "Cuil, however, looks only at the contents of individual Web pages - analyzes the concepts and context - without considering the links to those pages."

[godsofchaos]

Most multi word terms produces absolutely no results..... It still has a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong way to go if it wants to be at least 1% as good as MSN (forget about google cause no one can come close!)

[Surf_Dude]

Yeah.

I've changed my mind.
After an initial WOW, it seems that they can't find squat. Just the obvious first queries I tried.

The choking on 2-word and 3-word queries is sporadic, I have noticed.
It won't work one time, then it might work the next.

Singular and plural make a big difference. Try switching those.

[Farmer77]

Not a very practical search engine so far. Needs major tweaking.

The search results come out right for keywords that relate to big established sites. If you type Digg, you get Digg pages. If you type Nintendo, you get Nintendo pages. But when it comes down to niche and long tail keywords, the results are all out of whack. Results for many abbreviated keywords don't show up. If you search for NY Mets, it will come back with nothing. You have to search for New York Mets instead. And there's no auto correction for that. Search for something that was recent like say "Madonna Arod" and you get 1 result, and that is to a parked domain.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by Surf_Dude

4. "Cuil, however, looks only at the contents of individual Web pages - analyzes the concepts and context - without considering the links to those pages."

That alone is indicative of the fact that this site will never gain any popularity. It's a very web2.0 name, but link structure is part of what makes google so amazing. Good websites need to have some metric for authority, besides analyzing content. Last I checked, that's primarily what a lot of spammers did. Try and write pages that SE's would like, the problem is that Google doesn't just look at the page as a means of trusting it, it looks elsewhere. Cuil gives their fate to countless of Viagra spammers. Link building (for the purpose of spam) can take a LONG time. I see this site getting gamed very easily.

[2-4-K]

I guess the one thing in its favor is that they already have $33 mill VC and its run by 3 ex Google execs who no doubt have some inside info on what direction search is taking. Also one of the Cuil team helped eBay with the S.E so def a lot of exp in there.

I dont mind the interface direction they are taking as its very different to the big G more of a magazine layout, lets see if the gain traction in the market.. then you can guess whats next.... hmmm perhaps Microsoft decides its worth making an offer substantially more than its value only to screw it up.

[Jeffreyw]

Let's support this one, like the way we do with Firefox!

[rekjl]

Just wondering surf dude, since you mentioned that you got good rankings there, what are the traffic? Do they send you any nice traffic at all?

[GH Fever]

Besides the horrible reviews i've heard here and elsewhere, the engine is ALREADY down. Wow....

[confusion]

This:

We’ll be back soon...

Due to overwhelming interest, our Cuil servers are running a bit hot right now. The search engine is momentarily unavailable as we add more capacity.

Thanks for your patience.


is one of the many reasons that google does not have to worry.

[desilator]

Originally Posted by GH Fever

Besides the horrible reviews i've heard here and elsewhere, the engine is ALREADY down. Wow....

Just too hot to trot.

[scubita]

Well, i'm not surprised... and the searches, oh man, too bad to be true.

[PhilG]

hmmmmm. some MAJOR tweaking needs to be done..

I just did a search for my host and I was quite suprised to see an incorrect logo the sites's listing and also a porn picture that has nothing to do with the subject or listing!!

Bad Cuil!

[desilator]

The only thing I like is the black other then that they can bite it.

[fantozzi]

It looks like it's still a beta, and a real beta, not a google-style of beta.

I tried a keyword combination and it gave no results. I tried the exact same keywords a minute later and it showed some results.

[angilina]

Cuil looks good. And I was happy to see my site in the results it showed for one of my primary keywords

[ai3gtmc]

I cant see my site on my keyword that I normally see on page 1 in google.. -_- so yeah bad cuil

[GH Fever]

FINALLY got to search the site and out of there "21 billion" pages they didn't find my site when i'm on the 1st and 2nd page for Google with certain keywords.

Ew.