Software

Gallery: Cuil searches--hits and misses

By // July 28, 2008, 3:31 AM PST

Image 1 of 16

  • Cuil.com

    The husband and wife team of former IBM search engine developer Tom Costello and Google-veteran Anna Patterson along with another former Googler, Russell Power, set out to make a splash with a new search engine that promises to index three times more of the Web than their rivals.

    Cuil (pronounced "cool") promises organized results, different results from other search engines, and complete privacy protection.

    Cuil jumped the gun and apparently launched too soon but its promises do sound good.

    Following are screenshots from Cuil.com. Click on any image to enlarge.

  • "cuil"

    Searching for Cuil on cuil.com on Monday morning gives more than 121,000 results but none on the first page are about Cuil and the categories refer to French breads and Scottish Glens.

  • Google cuil

    "cuil" received 644,000 hits on Google but did give information on the company.

  • MSN

    MSN search pulled up a mere 73,500 results for "cuil".

  • Search.com

    CBS's (new owner of ZDNet) Search.com comes up with 110,000 hits for "cuil".

  • Altavista

    Altavista reaches for numbers with 1,110,000 "cuil" hits. Gas relief?

  • Yahoo

    Yahoo was the winner (or was it?) with 1,320,000 results. Cuil's premise is that very few searches require more than a page or two of search results--and how many people have ever reached 1,000? Hands?

  • "Harry Potter"

    A Cuil search on "Harry Potter" comes out better--with tabs on the top, an Explore by Category box on the right and scroll over notes than give site basics.

  • Drilldowns

    This Cuil sample screen highlights the Explore by Category and the roll-over definitions to help you narrow your search.

  • In its documentation, Cuil says it will help you define your search with "Jaguar" as an example--and cites the animal and football team. However, on the Cuil site the information is limited to the car and Atari games.

  • The tabs help--if you're looking for a car.

  • Jaguars

    Still want to find out about the Jacksonville Jaguars but an "s" doesn't appear to help.

  • Typing tips

    Cuil will give suggestions while you type in a query.

  • FAQs

    Cuil FAQs proudly refer to their Privacy Policy.

  • Privacy Policy

    But more first-day jitters show off a bad link.

  • Privacy Policy

    But you can find Cuil's privacy policy if you do your own searching.

Related Topics:

Enterprise Software Developer Open Source Software Mobility Cloud

Cuil.com

The husband and wife team of former IBM search engine developer Tom Costello and Google-veteran Anna Patterson along with another former Googler, Russell Power, set out to make a splash with a new search engine that promises to index three times more of the Web than their rivals.

Cuil (pronounced "cool") promises organized results, different results from other search engines, and complete privacy protection.

Cuil jumped the gun and apparently launched too soon but its promises do sound good.

Following are screenshots from Cuil.com. Click on any image to enlarge.

Free Newsletters, In your Inbox