WebProNews

Homeostasis in the search world has returned to normalcy and last week's much-hyped potential Google competitor has slipped back into relative Internet obscurity in terms of traffic. That's not a bad thing, really. Cuil's servers needed a break.

Hitwise General Manager of Global Research Bill Tancer reports that after an initial spike last week rocketing Cuil to a rank of 106 among websites at launch and grabbing over half a percent search share, the would-be dark horse has dropped 1034th in terms of traffic, and 34th among search engines.

But that means it's still on the radar. Cuil will just be lower key, and, more importantly, lesser trafficked while the pedigree engineers make much, much needed tweaks and hope for a second chance.

Tancer's other numbers are interesting. The majority (66%) of those using Cuil are male, which is not so surprising, historically speaking. Things get a little weird, though, when Tancer reveals that the largest age group using the search engine qualify for senior citizen discounts at Shoney's.

He guesses it has to do with the number of news sites covering Cuil's launch and directing traffic there still.