CUIL (pronounced cool), a new search engine launched earlier today by former Google employees Tom Costello (CEO), Anna Patterson (VP Engineering) and Russell Power. The search engine newcomer claims it has the most comprehensive web index and returns superior results over search marketing leader Google.
There’s been a lot of buzz about this start-up backed by $33 million in venture capital by Greylock, Madrone Capital Partners and Tugboat Ventures. Cuil offers a unique interface with its three column search results page and added search features like ‘Explore by Category’ and related tabbed search pages. But can style beat search?
So far it seems that Google has yet to be dethroned as many searches on CUIL were returning either unrelated results or no results at all. What’s a few minor hiccups to a start-up search engine’s SERPs!? Well quite a bit, considering they’ve boasted being able to return better results in a unique interface.
Although here’s a popular search for ‘Dark Knight’ that did work.
There have been several attempts by start-ups recently to take a run at Google like Blekko, Hakia and Search Wikia to name a few. They’ve all fallen short of their goal to capture market share from Google and it’s unlikely CUIL will fare any better. While the interface is more engaging and offers some great tools that add to the search experience it can’t compete with Google. At least not yet.
Why? Google has succeeded because at the core of its raison d’être is its mission to be the best in search. Its design is simple, there’s no flashy advertising or zwinky’s covering its bare white pages. Its purpose is to do one thing…Search. And search well at that!
Google outperforms its competitors because it returns results that are relevant and it does so more quickly and searches more web pages than we’ll ever care to read. ‘Size Wars’ is so 2005. Still it’s great to see a new player in the search game to drive innovation.
