Cuil.com: A New Search Engine Aims To Beat Google

Cuil, a brand new search engine, was launched today by founders Tom Costello, Anna Patterson, and Russell Power, with the latter two being former Google employees. With their insider view on Google and and its search techniques and page ranking systems, this trio believes that they have created a search engine which is many times more powerful, and is capable of producing even more relevant search results.

Why is Cuil Different?

There are many aspects which set Cuil aside from its competitors.

1. Size - Features The Largest Index

Cuil (pronounced ‘Cool’) is already the largest search engine today. With over 120 billion web pages in its index, it has index three times for web pages than any other search engine.

2. Unique Search Algorithm

Additionally, it has a unique approach to web search. According to Cuil’s press release it has pioneered a new approach, guaranteed to give highly relevant results:

The search engine goes beyond today’s search techniques of link analysis and traffic ranking to analyze the context of each page and the concepts behind each query. It then organizes similar search results into groups and sorts them by category.

This also means one good thing for website owners, unlike with most search engines, your website is not valued based on its traffic. Instead, it is valued based on its content and relevancy to the search query.

3. Privacy

Currently, search engines typically gather information about users to aid in providing relevant results. Cuil is different. Instead, Cuil guarantees privacy for its searchers, stating: Since the search engine ranks pages based on content instead of number of clicks, personal data collection is unnecessary, so personal search history is always private.

4. Mulitple Features To Facilitate Search

Cuil also provides the user with additional features to help them search. This includes rollover definitions, tabs tabs to clarify subjects, images to identify topics and search refining suggestions to help guide users to the results they seek.

Cuil also displays the search results in a new fashion. Instead of the typical row-by-row display. Cuil displays its results in a grid, maximizing how many results can be seen at once, and providing easy access to the page navigation at the bottom of each results page.

5. No Ads?

For now, there are no ads embedded in the Cuil search results!

Given the way that search engines typically clutter the search engine results pages with ads, some might say that this is Cuil’s most exciting feature. However, this dearth of ads will most likely be short lived, as there are few other ways that a search engine can generate revenue.

Try Cuil Now…?

Cuil is up and ready for users. However, there have been a few intermittent issues. Some queries will yield 0 results, and calls for pages have been yielding 404 Page Not Found error messages. (It also appears that some of the static pages have been modified in this last hour, which might be the cause of the 404 error messages.)

Sure, every new service has its hiccups, especially if it gets bombarded by more traffic than was probably simulated during the beta stage. And last minute content revisions are no surprise.

As a result, it might be worth waiting a day or two, or even a few hours, to start using Cuil.

Should Google Be Worried?

Cuil is already causing a stir in the search engine community. And with the largest index, insider talent from Google (as well as Alta Vista, IBM, the Internet Archive, and eBay), and additional search features, this might just be the next big thing. For now, however, Google still reigns supreme with its uncluttered search interface and easy-to-use search operators.