Is CUIL, CooL?

I was once approached by a colleague-friend about this new search engine, CUIL. We had a sort of a bet if it will be the next technology to snatch Google’s crown for the best search engine on the web. I, being a Google user for the longest time, of course bet my top dollar to Google.

For those who have not heard of CUIL (I know there are still a lot out there), what is CUIL?
CUIL pronounced as “cool” is a Gaelic word which means knowledge or wisdom.
It’s a new search engine which is the brainchild of ex-Google staffer Anna Patterson, who by the way developed TeraGoogle indexing system and hubby Tom Costello, a search engine developer for Stanford University and IBM. TeraGoogle is still being used by Google up to the present.

CUIL was supposed to surpass any search engine on the web with 120 million indexed pages. It has three times the capacity of any search engine today (though Google say it has a Trillion but only index those that are useful).

It has a very fresh layout and aside from its indexed pages, it also managed to impress me on its paging style. Both the top and bottom page margins freeze up when you scroll up and down so you won’t lose sight on the pages while browsing. These offering are a unique feature which hasn’t been developed yet by other search engines. CUIL also has the ability to let you see the content in two to three columns, an option which Google, Yahoo and MSN doesn’t offer. The specific results tab is a cool feature also when you search for a general keyword like “test”. The best feature though so far, which most users would clamor is its Privacy. CUIL never store personal identifiable information on its database. Though, most would prefer this, it’s unlikely to be enough for users to switch from their search engine of choice.

But here is the best part: the true acid test for a search engine is its search results.
CUIL has a distinctive approach to indexing websites. It focuses on the content of each page instead of ranking them based on popularity, as Google does. That may make sense in theory — after all, the most popular restaurants, for example, rarely serve the best food — but it is precisely the model that Google broke away from in order to give users more relevant results. That could explain why a CUIL search on "insomnia" directs the user to the American Insomnia Association rather than to the Wikipedia entry on the subject pulled up first by most other search engines. And for this alone, CUIL falls way short of the industry's leaders, and even, for that matter, of many startups.

On top of that, CUIL only managed to come up with only a web search engine, when Google, Yahoo, MSN and others have search tabs for news, photos, maps and business information. These requirements are considered a basic for any search engine with dreams of competing against the “biggies” in the search engine industry.

And the worst part was, the search engine crashed on launch date, while millions of visitors were well on its way to using it. In short, what looked like a successful public-relations launch is backfiring because the product has failed to meet the lofty expectations that it created. The hype turned into a backlash for its unimpressive performance which could leave long term damage to its name. Backed by reputable investors that have reportedly invested $33m, CUIL will now have to go into damage control instead of riding the momentum, and hope that users and the industry will give it another chance once it works out its kinks.

So, did I double my money? You bet I did!