Cuil Interest Shows Hunger For Search Competitor

By Jason Lee Miller - Fri, 08/01/2008 - 11:33

They might want to cut back on idle snacking, though

Cuil, the search engine launched at the beginning of the week with brassy fanfare and progressive decrescendo on Monday, still looks about the same on Friday. It's faster, at least, without 50 million—seriously—queries hitting its categorized servers. The images are still a bit out of whack, the categories still odd, the results certainly alternative.

Regardless, the important part is the 50 million searches conducted the first day of launch. "[T]hat’s in the same ballpark as Microsoft’s Live Search and approaching Yahoo!. And they have a bit more infrastructure than our small start-up," the Cuil team blogs. The traffic "outstripped" their ability to respond, causing some machines to fail, and, as we know, the masses to be underwhelmed.

Hitwise's Bill Tancer reports that Cuil premiered at position #106 of all Internet sites, in tenth place among search engines, grabbing 0.6% of search share on Monday. Not quite Live Search or Yahoo ballpark, not even in Ask or AOL's either, but really kind of startling for a debut.

Tancer also reports that a third of Cuil's traffic originated from other search engines, and over a quarter came from news and media sites. After hype and subsequent deflation, Tuesday's traffic wasn't quite the same level and Cuil's rank dropped to 197, and 12th among search engines.

But still…

Those numbers illustrate some interesting things about this launch, and one crucial point beneath the surface. First point: a lot of credibility and disclosure to the right sources goes a long way. Sarah Carey, Cuil's communication strategist and columnist for Ireland's Sunday Times, blogged this morning she sent word to no more than 20 journalists.

Sounds like they sent them to the right journalists who were able to recognize the Stanford/Palo Alto/PhD/former Googler search brains behind what was effectively touted as the world's biggest search engine, and the fever just spread from there. Google's post about scanning a trillion URLs daily also suddenly has interesting timing, published just a couple of days before Cuil hit cyberspace.

Second point, the important one: It appears the Internet is hungry, starving even, for a Google competitor. All that goodwill, all that hoisting to the top, bestowed on Google all those years has lulled in the face of a now spooky Internet steamroller. Who would have thought Yahoo would be rendered virtually impotent? All that good will, all that hoisting to the top was waiting for Cuil, and unfortunately for its founders, Cuil's crowd-surfing ended badly.

But they sure got everybody's attention quickly, nobody's more than Google's, you can bet. If Cuil can be fixed—and it needs to be fixed relatively soon—then a second go at it looks not just possible, but potentially very successful.

They may want to trim their budget a bit and invest on some infrastructure and scaling, though. Carey's now famous prose style shined quite the light on the inner workings at Cuil and how they've been spending their VC money. That post was deleted from her blog, but you can still take a peek via Yahoo's cache. This section is an eyebrow raiser:

Lunch is ordered in every single day. Huge fridges burst with snacks and drinks. Bowls of strawberries and muffins lie around the rest area.

The company pays for a personal trainer and gym membership for everyone. A doctor calls round each Friday, after the weekly barbeque, to see if everyone’s in good health. Employees drift in an out at times that suit themselves.

When I observed this behaviour first I was appalled and took my CEO friend aside. This was disastrous! His company would never succeed if he wasted money like this and didn’t crack the whip. He laughed. This is the way it works out here.

Well, they say you should dress for the job you want and not the job you have. If a company wants to be the Googleplex, one might suppose they should start acting like it.

News Tags: Search, Technology, Google, Cuil

About the author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.

42 Comments

By Home Remedies (WPN reader) - Tue, 10/28/2008 - 21:11

Dont count Cuil out

I wouldnt count Cuil out at all. I think all in all their search engine is pretty good when compared to Yahoo and MSN. And when you consider those are SE's in position 2 and 3 behind the leader, google, it doesnt levae much to have to achieve in order to be number 2 and take a piece of market share.

By Guest (WPN reader) - Wed, 08/13/2008 - 18:34

Easy Search Live

I did a search for the term "wassco" & "wassco.com" on Easy Search Live, like so many of you have recommended. Easy Search Live changed my search terms everytime I tried. They took out the "ass" part of "WASSCO" and searched for "wco."

So, I tried a search for a fictitious company called "shitco." It took the "Shit" out of "Shitco" and gave results for "co."

What's up with that Easy Search Live? WASSCO is a legitimate business that sells soldering equipment & supplies.

By Dave Gilbert (WPN reader) - Sat, 08/16/2008 - 11:46

that is because we filter

that is because we filter the terms "Ass" and "shit" we are only responding to public demand for a family safe search engine.

perhaps if you used the most likely term "soldering equipment" you would have got these results "Showing 1 - 10 of around 10,300,000 results for soldering equipment" of which Wassco is Number 1.

which would you prefer 20 pages of results containing porn links or 10,300,000 results the are highly relative to your search query..?

By Guest (WPN reader) - Tue, 09/30/2008 - 11:07

You dont filter nothing -

You dont filter nothing - you search engine is full of porn and rubbish. I dunt know what you are talking about. You decided not to be family friendly after all? Easysearchlive - home of the pornographer.

By Guest (WPN reader) - Tue, 08/05/2008 - 23:54

Search Results - Wiki

Thank heavens Cuil does not yeild Wikipedia near the top of every search. At least this is progress.

By Gerald English (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 22:16

Easy Search Live --- The Best Searches

I am the everyday average user of search engines. And I am tired of search engines that take me away from the search page. Also I like to compare several items, prices, or views at the same time. No seach engines I have found can do that for me.

Except Easy Search Live!

Easy Search Live is the next generation search. It has a special feature call "Live View".

Live View adds a new dimension to the search results supplied.
By opening a Live View window below a listing, using the link next
to the flashing Green Button, you can surf the listed site and locate
the information you seek without leaving the results page.

The Live View window acts like a mini-browser and you can open multiple
Live Views on the same page.

Email Link allows you to instantly share a listing with up to 5 of your
friends and include a personal note as well.

How about that for progress? This is a feature that the other engines do not have.

To look at the search engine go to: http://www.easysearchlive.com/

Others may may be used more, but not after trying Easy Search Live.

Gerald English

By Guest (WPN reader) - Tue, 09/16/2008 - 04:28

No, you're NOT an average

No, you're NOT an average user of search engines. You're part of the search engine team. How about trying a little honesty?

By Cathy Romine (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 20:52

Are you kidding?

I hate to disappoint the big guys here but this in no way measures up to the search engine easysearchlive. Has anyone bothered to take a look?

Live View - More Results, 99% spam free - judge for yourself and see who is set to be the next google -

http://easysearchlive.com

By sewhaa (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 15:36

Cuil

I too tried the search engine and the first thing I did not like was the look. I was not comfortable with the experience so I just went right back to Google; They are the BOSS so far.

By Dave Gilbert (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 19:01

try our search engine

try our search engine http://www.easysearchlive.com and compare us to Google

By Mihai (WPN reader) - Fri, 08/15/2008 - 17:01

re

easysearchlive.com , a very stupid name

By Dave Gilbert (WPN reader) - Sat, 08/16/2008 - 12:17

name

The Name reflects the engine and what it can do for you no different to microsoft live search yahoo or google for that matter who really cares what it is called as long as it works.

By Dave Gilbert (WPN reader) - Sat, 08/16/2008 - 12:16

name

The Name reflects the engine and what it can do for you no different to microsoft live search yahoo or google for that matter who really cares what it is called as long as it works.

By Guest (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 13:34

Cuil SE

Okay so Cuil may not be the best right now but the potentual is there in a big way. Most complain of not finding what they are able when compared to Google.

My experience has been that Cuil supplied information that I had never seen on Google. Remember too that google with enforce geo location means that relevant information takes longer to find. Of coarse being blinkered stalward US citizens most believe that the world is the .com net. forgetting that there is another world out there.

By Dan (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 11:58

we'll see...

I really thing that Google needs some competition.... I used to love the big G, but now it seems they're trying to monopolize the world with their adwords/adsense, etc.

So, I'm thrilled that Cuil is trying to compete, but their search is definitely greatly flawed.

My site - http://www.foremostgroups.com - is ranked #3-4 on google for the word 'foremost'.... and I stopped looking for it in Cuil after page 6. Searching 'foremostgroups.com' found our site, but also produced some of the most absurd and irrelevant results ever.

I honestly hope that Cuil pulls through and is able to compete with the G, but i'm not sure it's going to happen without a refined algorithm.

Am I correct in saying that their algorithm is based more on content, whereas Googles is more about backlinks?

By Richard Frisbie (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 10:50

CUIL works for me

What I really liked is that my search terms:
"New York Books" & Richard Frisbie each returned me (my bookshop - Hope Farm Press and my bio page) ranked first. Oddly enough, the image I saw was from a review I did, not one of the several of me I've posted. (ASK a Travel Expert from a gay travelguide I reviewed.)

Google only has me in the top ten, but it does include my various listings more times then CUIL does. Still top ranking is top ranking - I like CUIL!

By Guest (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 08:14

Needs Help

Like the rest of the geeks I gave Cuil a try on the first day, however the servers were overloaded, so I waited until the second day to do a query. I needed a driver for my HP printer, so I queried "hp f4140" and the results were 0. Hmmm.....a search engine with over 120mil pages cached, but nothing on the model of HP printer that I needed. Google immediate gave me thousands of results, and I was able to locate the driver I needed.

Cuil needs to go back to the drawing board some more before I am willing to switch my allegiance.

By Colin Bingham (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 07:41

Results of own keyword search

Cuil is certainly different.

I checked Cuil out last week when I first heard of it and again today for my main keyword phrase [ harmony partners ] and although I was unable to find any direct links to my website, found that in most instances links came from a press release that I put out over a year ago.

Checking with a longer keyword word phrase [ Christian singles online dating service ] which pitted me against much bigger rivals put me on pages 4 and 5, again with the press release.

Now that’s what I call interesting.

By Guest (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 06:23

aquisitions

Has anyone heard if cuil are looking at aquisitions?

By Guidelojas (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 05:21

Cuil rising as referring site at Google Analutics

I'm not quite sure yet but since I've tryed Cuil to search some keywords fo my website it stated bringing visitors! Will it be a free backlink source?

By Surrey Bookkeeper (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 05:18

Lots Of Pages Indexed But...

...our site isn't on there yet. Despite ranking at 1 and 2 on Google, the our site doesn't appear on Cuil. Also tried 'bookkeeping services in Surrey' where we know we have the content, yet stil nothing.

Will wait and reserve judgement but had high hopes mainly due to the amount of pages they'd indexed already.

By search channel (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 04:32

googleplex

It may take some time for cuil to catch up to Google but when it does

Look out

By Guest (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 07:34

Its Algorithm

Is there any info out there about how its algorithm works? Our sites are treated very differently compared to Google and I was wondering what affects the rankings for cuil? Do they not rely as heavily on backlinks?

By logo designer (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 04:08

shocking thumbnail relevency!

I know i am repeating this, but if Cuil wants people to take them seriously, they've seriously got to improve upon delivering relevant results. At the moment, the thumbnails being displayed are downright misleading and have no relevance to the result being displayed besides it.

One of my sites is ranking in the top 5 :-)) however the thumbnail being displayed is of the logo of a major international news broadcaster!

By REG CROWDER (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 03:13

Google definitely NOT discriminating in favor of its own Knols

As far as I can see, Google definitely is NOT discriminating in favor of its own Knol content.

This is my Knol:

http://knol.google.com/k/reg-crowder/international-investing/6dyptd3yjxyq/2

My Knol has been on Yahoo search for five days. Google still doesn't even have it indexed. As far as Google's search function is concerned, my Knol doesn't even exist. (Cuil doesn't have it either.)

I'm not worried or upset. I'm sure the Google spiders will get to it eventually. Nothing to get excited about. But just between us, I think Google is bending over backwards to avoid any accusations of favoritism for its own content.

REG CROWDER

International Investing (A Google Knol)

http://knol.google.com/k/reg-crowder/international-investing/6dyptd3yjxyq/2

By Zvi (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 02:59

What does Google Really Think about Cuil?

On the one hand Google’s spokesperson says, “Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space…” On the other hand, its algorithm really knows what to do with competitors. Look at this blogpost about SERPs and you will see what I mean.

www.aims.co.il/il/blog/cuil-vs-google/

I am following this discussion and would like to hear what you think about this post.

Paul

By garce (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 02:25

Geek Hype Is Good and All, But...

When I first heard about Cuil in the context as a (possible future) competitor to Google, I was kind of excited. New ideas and big plans get my heart pumping.

I liked the look of the site when I arrived, and entered a search term one of my sites ranks well with elsewhere. Oops.

Russian domains, forum posts, and lots of pages on free hosting services filled the results. Typing in my main site's domain name (eg. maindomain.com) returned four pages hosted at tripod.com, and 2 "whois" services. I didn't check the other 118,000 results.

Entering the same domain name with the "www" (eg http://www.mydomain.com/ - don't click ) returns one lonely link to a single .ru site that I refuse to visit.

Being the sport that I am, I typed another domain name I own into the Cuil search form, and was rewarded with 11 entries, all identical :

INTRODUCTION TEXT MAY BE HERE. Throughout the Fireworks workspace you will find color boxes that show the current color choices for options and object characteristics. When you click a color box, a color pop-up window opens, where you can choose a color for the color box.When you click a color box, a color pop-up...

All eleven results were blatantly irrelevant to the phrase I searched for.

Finally, I typed in a two word phrase that is relevant to my wife's business and received these results:

bristol theckla sterrett theckler theckler bristol theckno theckston thecla thecla betulae theclackhouse theclackhouse.com theclackhouse.combb theclan theclan.com theclancygroup theclancygroup.co.uk theclangers theclanrs theclanrs.com theclash theclash com theclash links dvd theclash.com theclashed theclashofthetitans...

thefa.comfull time, thefacebook.+com thefacebook.cm thefacebook.cmo thefa.comfulltime, thefacebook.co - a920 contract samsung without thefacebook.coim thefa.comlearning, thefacebook.colm thefacebook.com. Thefacebook.com login thefac, thefacebook.com login.php thefacebook.com. thefacebook.come - thefac ebook, thefacebook.comj...

Thefacebookc.om thefacebook login.url, thefacebookcom a veces vuelvo thefaceboook - thefacebook om, thefaceboook.com thefacialshrine thefactor the waterhouse twins thefacebook poke, thefactor e thefactor.com thefactory thefacebook groupie, thefactory.bz - aashna kircher thefactory.com thefacebook high, thefactory.net...

Thefacebookc om theerotcreview.com, thefacebookc.om thefacebookcom thefaceboook - theerotic, thefaceboook.com aacuho thefacialshrine theerotic review, thefactor thefactor e thefactor.com theeral, thefactory - thefactory.bz thefactory.com theeral the nomad, thefactory.net aargon collection agen. Thefactoryoutlet...

200){this.value=this.value.substr(0,200);alert('Maximum number of characters reached. ');}" Message. 20){this.value=this.value.substr(0,20);alert('Maximum number of characters reached. ');}" onFocus="clearText(this)" Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances.-Maya Angelou. I would have my ears filled...

Get the picture? What use are these results to anyone?

By Neels Theron - Non-Guru Road To Making Money Online (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 01:48

Cuil At Least Something Fresh And New To Watch

I don't know where Cuil will be a year or two from now, but it is nice to get some fresh blood into the search engines. It is a different approach and I wish them success. Will always love Google as well, but who knows, Cuil may just fill a void.

By edegreecolleges.com (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 01:36

Accredited college & universities online

While search via Cuil I found that for a specific keywrods, it show image from my site, for all search results. I have no problem with but may be some copy-right issue arise in future with some sites ....

Online college & universities directory

By Tony Webb (WPN reader) - Mon, 08/04/2008 - 01:29

3-D Multimedia-Search

In 1991 I was the national sales manger for the world's first search engine that could retrieve the spoken word from the sentence search. For example: we captured the US Senate daily proccedings for 3 years. The power of the search engine to find the "lost nuclear suitcase warhead" was found with the option to read, hear or see via 28.8 baud modem.

I applaud Cuil and their bold investors but if you want a mixture of a "united search engine" then contact me. No doubt this will be for improving on humanity to educate themselves for a better planet..

Trust me. I know on another worldclass search engine that will unite with Cuil.

Tony Webb - Founder www.eSpaceTickets.com