Cuil: the next big search engine?

By
Angie Herrera

If you read much on web-related stuff - search engine marketing and optimization in particular - you've probably heard about Cuil (pronounced "cool"). It's a new search engine created by former Google employees. I first read about Cuil via a post at John Gruber's site, which was a link to BBC News' Rory Cellan-Jones' piece on it. I was immediately intrigued as it seems Cuil is trying to go head first against Google. But at the same time, I I have to admit, I was skeptical. Google is a behemoth, and quite frankly, the reigning champion of search engines for many reasons. What caught my attention though, perhaps obviously, was the design. It was appealing, to say the least, but then I was incredibly disappointed by the results when I tried several search terms. I'll admit, I don't know a ton about how search engines really work. But it seems pretty logical, to me at least (and probably many other people), that if you type in the name of a business (assuming they're indexed in the first place), their website should come up first. Or at worst, on the first page. If you enter "420 design" into Google, we show up as #1. As we should. When I first tried Cuil (about a week ago), it placed us on page 2 and with a random image that looked like the cover of a furniture design brochure. Searching now, we do come up as first on Cuil. So clearly something has changed. But the question is, will Cuil achieve what it has set out to do? More importantly, should search engine specialists, site owners, web developers, etc., be concerned about it? I honestly don't think so. At least certainly not any time soon. Mike Moran over at Search Engine Guide has the best reasons why. I agree with him on every point. Despite that though, it will be incredibly interesting to see how things pan out over the next couple years. Only time will tell if Cuil will be good enough to join the big boys. In the meantime, go ahead and head over there and try some searches. :)