It’s Cuil to take on Google
Review: A new search engine shows some promise but needs more work
By Jim Rapoza, G WEEK LABS no new challenger can felt limited by the con- 120 billion pages, in com-
When it comes to ever dethrone Google, straints of Google’s tra- parison with Google’s 40
Internet search, remember, many people ditional link analysis and billion. However, from a
Google is the said the same thing about traffic ranking, which user perspective, the big-
undisputed champion. In a little company’s chances picks the 10 most popular gest difference-makers
fact, Googleissodominant of knocking out Yahoo links, so the two created for Cuil are its interface
that the appearance of any and AltaVista. Cuil. They’ve impressed and how it performs its
new challenger is typically Cuil the company was investors enough to bank searches.
received with doubt and created by Stanford Uni- $33 million in venture Cuil provides attrac-
even scorn. tive results in two or
But while Google three columns with
clearly rules search, good details for each
it does have some result that include
weaknesses. Talk to images from the pages
any regular user of (which weren’t always
the Web and you’ll relevant to the search
likely hear some dis- or the page). I found
satisfaction when it this to be a nice way to
comes to searching browse search results,
with Google. While though it is hardly
G o o g l e h a s b e e n ne w. In fact, there are
focusing on online browser extensions
a p p l i c a t i o n s a n d that provide very simi-
other new technolo- lar interface layers for
gies, its core search Google.
interface hasn’t Also, on some
changed much in the searches, Cuil pro-
last few years. vides a rich category
S o i t s h o u l d n’ t Cuil sorts search results into three magazine-style columns. box that makes it pos-
come as a surprise sible to drill down
that we have seen in versity graduates Tom capitalfunding. into related searches
recent months the launch Costello, the company’s Cuil’s technology ana- that Cuil has precatego-
of several challengers to CEO, and his wife, Anna lyzes the context of each rized. So, for example,
Google’s search crown, Patterson, who is presi- page and the concepts my search for Marshall
such as Jimmy Wales’ dent and chief operating behind each query. It amplifiersofferedrelated
Wikia Search. officer. then organizes any similar searches on other amp
The latest challenger Costelloresearchedand search results into groups manufacturers, as well
i s c a l l e d C u i l ( p r o - developed search engines and sorts them by category as bands known for using
nounced “cool”), which at Stanford Universityand in three columns across Marshalls.
was launched July 28 . IBM, while Patterson was the page in magazine-style More interesting is that,
And while it isn’t all that most recently an architect fashion. rather than using the com-
groundbreaking, it does of Google’s large search The biggest claim in plex page rank indexing
offer some clear differ- index and led a Web page comparison with Google that Google uses—which
ences from Google. In ranking team. is the size of Cuil’s index, provides results based to a
addition, if you think that Patterson and Costello which Cuil officials say is [CONTINUED ON PAGE 30]
