Okay blogging virginity, here we go! I want to kick this thing off right, so lets be sure to start off on the right pace. Seeing as this is the first in an internet-based article log, what better to start with than the an article on the web? I’ve been becoming increasingly aware of the advances happening in search engines.
As of July 28, 2008, a new search engine was created in Cuil (pronounced “cool”). Created by former Google employees, Cuil hopes to topple the search engine giant. And I have to admit, a certain revolutionary excitement bubbles inside me whenever an underdog attempts to overcome the dynasty of a monolith company and Cuil is no exception. Cuil boasts a few very interesting features. To start with, there is the pictorial layout. It is arranged in a magazine-style series of cascading windows with a description beneath each entry. Simply click on the image (or text) and you’ve found your site. Ideally, this design plan would allow users to view the site without actually having to go to it (similarly to the preview pane in Outlook). Cuil also claimed to have a far larger database of websites than Google. Using original technology, Cuil hoped to improve on the search engine platform that Google has used for the past decade or so.
Unfortuantely, Cuil sucks. It’s not that there isn’t a great deal of potential there, but Cuil hasn’t delivered up to this point. On the launch date, Cuil wound up with so much traffic that the servers couldn’t keep up. It served largely unrelated sites when querries came in. It was documented to have an issue with porn sites popping up and all in all Cuil was quoted as spending the next few days “putting out fires” – not a great start to overthrowing an empire.
Google also doesn’t seem too worried about the competition. Google hasn’t done much to alter its own search engine and instead has opted to work on and release new products like Chrome (a new web browser that was released on September 2, 2008.
However, Cuil VP of communications, Vince Sollitto, promised better results once bugs were worked out. Here’s hoping Cuil comes to all it was promised to be. VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
