Is the ‘Cuil’ Search Engine Cool?

If you’re keeping up with developments in the business of search engines, you already know about Cuil (pronounced “cool”). If not, then let me tell you what I’ve learned about this latest search engine that was created by ex-Google employees who played a key role in Google’s success.

Cuil is fairly new in the business, but its’ owners and developers are not. It’s a SE that is trying to give Google some competition, but so far, they’re not burning up the super-highway. That doesn’t mean they won’t one day because we all know how things change every day in the world of technology. They launched their new SE on July 28, 2008 so they’re still in their infancy right now.

Cuil says they have over 120 billion web pages in their index already.. It’s interesting that they have more web pages than the Google search engine – or any other one for that matter. They say they have more than 3 times as many pages as any other search engine.

Some interesting facts about Cuil:

 

1. Cuil uses an interesting ‘black page’ when you conduct a search. Very unusual use of the color black on the search page – I’m not quite sure why they chose black yet.
2. They use relevancy rather than popularity on link analysis to rank pages.
3. They have a pretty good interface and design although they have some ground to cover to actually compete with Google.
4. Cuil is still working on some developmental ideas and you currently can’t conduct image searches or maps from what I can tell right now.
5. Cuil doesn’t have the ‘big brother’ eye that other search engines have – they don’t keep logs of your searches and they say that your privacy is secure more than other search engines.

There are a lot of search engines out there and knowing more about them can help your online business. There’s an interesting site at http://altsearchengines.com/2008/09/01/the-top-100-alternative-search-engines-september-2008/ that can give you more information on alternative search engines. Take a look and you’ll likely be surprised by what you find.

Cuil has a ways to go to catch up with Google, but with the power of the original Google developers and experts behind them, it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds. Regardless of where they’re headed, it might be a good idea to make sure you’re included in the Cuil search engine – getting in on the ground floor might be the ticket to the top floor.