Cuil: Good, But Not Great
Last night, the new search engine Cuil launched out of stealth-mode. As some had predicted, it seems Google's announcement about the size of its search index was a preemptive move to take some momentum away from one of Cuil's main features: the size of its index with 120 billion pages. As Cuil's team features quite a number of Google alumni, comparisons with Google's search are inevitable. In our tests, however, Cuil performed nowhere near as well as Google.
Layout
The Cuil homepage is a study in simplicity, with a black background, the Cuil logo, and the search box as its only major design elements. The search form is supposed to return typing suggestions, but this didn't work for us on any browser we tested. Maybe Cuil turned this off for the time being to take some load of its servers. Update: The typing suggestions are now working again.
Cuil takes a very different approach to displaying its results. Instead of a list, it displays results in three columns (though you can switch to a two-column view as well). Intuitively, it would seem that the most important results would be in the top left corner, but Cuil does not make this explicit. The top right spot is reserved for related searches, which usually displays either five or ten main suggestions and then, on mouse-over, slides open and reveals a more detailed selection.
Related Searches
Cuil prominently features its related searches, both in the box on the top right, as well as in a bar right underneath the search box. Overall, these seem to work surprisingly well. Thanks to the ability to quickly go down two levels of related searches, this function works better than the similar features in Yahoo Search, Ask, and Live Search, though they are not as extensive as the related searches on Clusty. Google tested a layout with prominently featured related searches last year, but hasn't made it a default feature.
The results Cuil displays in the related searches are usually relevant, though often, like in our search for 'Portland, OR,' it returned some strange results as well. For Portland, it seemed to think that we would also be interested in "Airlines of the United States" and "Regional Airline of the United States."
Unlike Google and its brethren, Cuil does not check your spelling and does not make an effort to suggest the correct search terms for you.
Test Searches
Of course, we couldn't do a comprehensive test of Cuil's 120 billion page index, but we did a couple of test searches and the results Cuil returned were often disappointing. Our search for 'Cessna 152,' one of the most popular general aviation training aircraft, gave us links to Wikipedia and the Cessna company on the big three search engines. Cuil, on the other hand, linked to an online store with manuals for sale.
On the other hand, searches for 'Linux' or other computing terms usually returned pretty good results and good suggestions for 'related searches'.'
Searching for people, however, was often a disappointment. While it worked great for historical figures, prominent bloggers were often nowhere to be found.
In our search for "Portland, OR," Cuil failed completely. Its top result was a link to a local Best Western hotel. Interestingly, a search for "Portland" only, however, gave us great results.
No Wikipedia?
One thing we noticed in our searches was the Cuil never returned any results from the Wikipedia. It isn't clear if Cuil is biased against displaying these, but it seems like a strange omission. Especially in our searches for historical figures, the results would have been far better if they had included Wikipedia articles. The top results for "Hitler Biography," for example, is a biography on BioAndLyrics, a site which copies the related Wikipedia article and suggests we also look at his discography.
Still Changing
One thing we noticed in our tests was that Cuil seems to be tweaking its servers constantly. Searches that returned no results last night now display thousands of links, while others, like our "Portland, OR" search above, stopped returning results completely for a while. Some of this could be explained by Cuil getting slammed with traffic right now (the site did slow down quite often during out tests), but that would also suggest that their system isn't quite as stable as it should be. Right now, for example, Cuil doesn't even display results for 'computers.'
Good, but not Great
Google, as well as Microsoft and Yahoo, profit from the simple fact that they have a far larger portfolio of sites to work with. A search for a city on the big three search engines, for example, will often display a map as one of the top results, while Cuil does not have that option. Similarly, searches for a stock symbol will show the performance of that stock in a little graph as one of the top results in Google, Live Search, and Yahoo Search, while Cuil, with some luck, returns a link to Yahoo's finance page as the top result, but without linking to the actual stock's page on Yahoo finance.
When it comes to current events, Google's results are simply fresher than Cuil's, thanks mostly to the results from Google News being displayed as part of the main search results.
Verdict
Overall, our experience with Cuil was a bit uneven. While the related searches often are very well chosen, the actual search results are disappointing. Cuil says it ranks results by the content on the pages only and not by popularity - however, it seems like this makes it a bit more susceptible to SEO manipulations, as some of our tests showed.
On some levels, Cuil doesn't feel like it is quite ready for prime time yet - even the links from its about page mostly display 404 errors. As of now, it's a worthy challenger and the size of its search index is impressive, but in the end, all consumers are going to care about is the quality of the search results, and there, Cuil's results are still too inconsistent.
UPDATE: Also see Wow, How Did Cuil Get So Much Publicity on Day 1?!
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Its fun to tinker with the idea of somebody challenging Google for search market share. Although I wouldn't say that search is by any means great, or even good right now, the key question is how will the cuil consider all of this user feedback and iterate appropriately?
www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
-Ron
It seems like most agree (e.g. RWW, TC, Scoble) Cuil isn't better than the big boys yet but it is interesting. Case in point, I searched my name and found some things from relevant sources I had never found before (Cuil returned a review on my "performance" in a movie I was in a few years ago that was posted on rotten tomatoes... absolutely made my day :))
It's not an every day search engine but I will continue using it for similar, somewhat obscure searches and that's a hell of a victory for Cuil
Not a good start for the newest challenger to Google, that is for sure. But, if they can work the bugs out, it could quickly develop into a supplemental search engine, the kind you check when Google's results need to be compared.
Tried Cuil briefly -- seems to have a few major shortcomings, and massive holes in its index. Blogged a quick comparison here: http://url.ie/k7r
Your review mirrored our experience. It's a great concept but the results were definitely uneven and disappointing at times. We look forward to seeing Cuil once all the bugs are worked out.
Good but not great? Really? Have your tried a search on Cuil yet? Works great as a data repository with poor ability to search?
They have a lot of work to do, maybe they should stick an alpha or beta badge on it?
I would tend to agree with the author on his assessment. For a particularly amusing view on the subject (IMHO), check out this post:
http://onlinebrandexperts.blogspot.com/2008/07/cuil-vs-google.html
I played around with Cuil a bit this afternoon after reading this. It does have a sleek, attractive design... when you can actually access the homepage. Unfortunately, this message comes up about 40% of the time:
We’ll be back soon...
Due to overwhelming interest, our Cuil servers are running a bit hot right now. The search engine is momentarily unavailable as we add more capacity.
Thanks for your patience.
They have several things to work out before they become a viable alternative to Google...
Your article omitted mention of one of Cuil's more controversial features - guessing at related images for the results page. I was somewhat distressed by what I saw after doing a vanity search this morning. Cuil found images used at the "About the Author" page at www.krazy.com (a website of mine) and associated them with the name "Peter Campbell" (which seems reasonably logical). But they didn't look at the images, of course, nor do they have any way to associate them with a particular Peter Campbell (such as me). So, when I search for my own name, a link relevant to me (though far from the most popular or relevant, really) shows up on page three. But two pictures - one of them a portrait of my wife and I, another a picture of my son -- show up alongside articles about other Peter Campbell's. At a minimum, this is creepy and inappropriate. Search Twitter for Cuil today and you'll find stories of far more inappropriate matchups, such as people's pictures attached to pornagraphic links. They need to rethink the random image matchups ASAP. I've emailed them asking them to remove my images from their server - we'll see how many weeks it takes them to respond, if they do.
I have been trying to use it since i heard about it today and it is not responding. How would this beat Google, it is a matter of time before it goes into oblivion.
If I remember right, my search for Harry Reid this morning brought up his Senate page first and a Wikipedia article second.
The images next to search results usually have nothing to do with those results. There's lots of cake.
It's not as good as google.
There's too much unsubtle corporate promotion (the typing suggestions could be called selling suggestions)
Overall I get the feeling that this isn't a "disinterested" search engine but a hungry commercial link-pusher.
Too much BS and not enough meat on the results page.
Cannot set any useful preferences (like open search results in new tab)
Don't like it. The term "CUIL" is cheesy (coo-will!), kinda obscure and dark-sounding, and in french sounds like a woman's privates.
These guys aren't going to take over anything. I was one of the first on the google bandwagon in its infancy, I was setting home pages to google left right and centre. I knew they were going to be big. That same spidey sense tells me this is going to flop.
I ran a search on myself and Cuil didn't find anything.
C'mon... I am the most important aspect of the web to some people! ( like myself ).
Joking aside, I am not famous but I do have an online presence, and if Google picks me up, I would expect Cuil ( who's index is supposedly 3 times as big ) to do it as well.
My guess is that this famous index is big but it has a huge latency as well, and perhaps mailing lists and ( maybe ) social media are not being indexed yet ( which is where I have most activity ). Anyway, I won't give up Google that easy.
Recent Social media is very valuable to me.
This will most probably change in the next few weeks... I can only imagine the pressure these guys might have been under. With all that funding on the table and the whole world looking at you.
Ahh... I can relate to that .
Yep.
Definitely.
Well, I just visited and did three searches. All of those results on Cuil were awful. Actually two of the three searches returned useless results with Cuil, not even close to the search term. Both Google and MSN beating them by far.
Of course you should not judge a search engine by doing three random tests. But when I tried the fourth search I got this result:
No results because of high load...
Due to excessive load, our servers didn't return results. Please try your search again.
Maybe they launched it a bit too early?
I tried but could not find my blog... I think bloggers pride will be desintegrated with such a browser. Anyway it is just their first day.
I think that's Cuil it's a kind of beta testing atm,
I try to search some keyword (in Italy) pertinent to our domain, "3 sul blog" results 250 no 1 our domain -.-
In Google "3 sul blog" will see our domain at the first place... very good in english related terms, but not Google.
I love this last, and all the related service, like AdSense, GMail, free and updated every time...
Google now rulez again!
Cya from an Italian fun!
So, how about http://www.hakia.com ?
I didn't see any way to search for a specific phrase. I'd get 8 or 10 thousand responses, almost 100% of which are irrelevant to the search. Without that obvious and simple feature, cuil is totally useless.
I would not dare to give a final verdict at sucha preliminary stage. Thiswas the first day of cuil. Maybe you will hate me, but I saw several good results for queries, but I join thos who think cuil is especially poor with non-english pages so far.
As the day goes on, Cuil's results seem to be changing constantly and the results I'm getting tend to be shifting between very good and horrible - sometimes for very similar terms (and the same for non-english terms - sometimes the results are stellar - sometimes they are just horrible).
They only just launched, so we should probably cut them some slack, but the first impression isn't very favorable.
Just tried Cuil... Google has a problem.
Try searching Cuil for "cuil".... it's sad that the search engine can't find itself!
120 billion pages. a lot.
Now: related searches:
makes up for every differance in context and related searches;
Colums: in three;
no waste of time, each column related within its gridline
Wecoming screen: black
allows people to thing and focus on search with maximum
time build in;
Drawbacks: navigation
A search engine;
Cannot compare giats;
Google A+ ;
etc, etc, etc.
I would like to see a Google competitor do well, but in my tests Cuil's results are every bit as off the mark as its name is.
I must say that as a web designer and online merchant I was anxious to see how my sites would do in the this new and "improved" search engine.
Wow! I'm impressed, my company is all over Cuil - by way of illegally copied pictures describing and promoting my competition! My site however is buried in the rankings - apparently whose only relevance is to be pilfered much like an unlocked car with the keys in the ignition. And in case I missed something that's still stealing right? The guy who gets into that unlocked car and turns the key is still going to jail when the cops catch hime, right?
So other than than stealing from me, Cuil has also yet to return a correct result when searching for a specific website name, company name or person.
As someone else mentioned, they don't even find themselves relevant in a search for the name of their company - I guess since have no graphics other than a black screen they had no need to list themselves since there is nothing to steal.
Privacy is good. Google forgot that. I do business overseas with people in "interesting countries" and my phones are routinely tapped by multiple agencies. I'm sure I'm on a list that Google responds to as well. If you believe in the Bill of Rights you should like Cuil.
As for the criticisms of the Google people and their minions in the technology "press" bashing Cuil, I say stuff it... I search information on the web for a living, spending 6 or more hours a day in search activities and engines. There is plenty of room for Cuil. Okay so it's overwhelmed on Day 1- guess that means a lot of people are looking for alts to Google. Do any of the ADHD users out here remember what Google’s opening day was like? They were overwhelmed, just like Cuil and did not spring forth as a little homunculus of applications.
Search is my bread and butter and Cuil, Alta Vista, Zaba, Ask, Vivisimo (Clusty), Google and others all have a place in the information stew. So I say Cuil it and allow them to roll out and grow. Remember Windows 3.1? It got better. They are gonna get better, have a great brain trust and a point of view other than posting popularity for ad revenue. Cuil is kewul.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw that Cuil had stolen pictures off my website and plastered them all over promotions for my competitor's websites. Apparently this is to be their modus operandi, and ours is not the only site that has been scraped for pictures. I am sure that someone will soon challenge this practice, and they will have to stop.
if you search for "tamariu", a beautiful beach in the Costa Brava of Cataluntya, the first result is from wikipedia, so it can't be a blanket ban. They have a long, long way to go...
I have no words to say, it's rock indeed
http://www.bangbull.com/details/23800-BE4/Amazing_natural_girl
Cuil is no way near to the GREAT GOOGLE.
It has not returning me any result for my surname that is "BARBHAYA" while google will show you so many result.
There is only one cool feature which would show u help in SERACH textbox. Nothing else.
Need to work very hard to reach to level of GOOGLE.
ALL THE BEST.
I searched my name and the most relevant results like my blog or my linkedin profile were nowhere to be seen, instead it threw up not-so-relevant results like comments I had posted somewhere and a bookmarking site I used for a week and quit posting to 6 months ago.
Google become a phenomenon because it gave relevant results. I don’t understand why these ex-googlers are missing this simple point by miles?
I "cuiled" my name and came up with two results. One was an oold blog of mine, the other attempted to bombard me with ads and install malware on my system. Not sure if that's better or worse than the lack of any results yesterday.
About Cuil I'd say "size isn't all what matters", bloggers and readers didn't like it so far.
Read my article
http://net-insider.blogspot.com
Cuil's greatest weakness appears to be in handling news-related sites. Not one major AP or Reuters headline from day 1 got any results in Cuil, while all linked to several news items showing the article. Even key word searches on current events failed for the most part.
Also, size means very little if the top search results aren't relevant:
Testing Basic Searches on Cuil
Cuil certainly had their PR machine in good order yesterday scoring articles in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and a host of other publications. Too bad, the machinery that supports a search engine (something called servers) wasn’t quite as ready with the site crashing repeatedly.
Way to make a great first impression. Some lessons that may come out of this:
1. If you hire a PR firm good enough to get you into the WSJ, make sure you’re ready for the resulting bum-rush to your website especially when you’re making claims about your superiority over Google.
2. We’re always interested in anointing the next Google or next Apple, but I bet you the next thing, whatever it may be, won’t just be a little incremental improvement to the existing thing like Cuil is. Whether Cuil is an improvement is debatable altogether, but at the end of the day, it’s a search engine with results displayed a bit differently. I don’t think most of us have conceived of what the Google killing application is, but I somehow doubt that putting info into columns and getting more results makes you a killer. I want relevant info which based on some quick tests of Cuil, it didn’t pull up (when it worked that is). A 2% improvement ain’t going to cut it.
I am always wary of supposed Google killers but gave Cuil a chance. Unfortunately, the first impression wasn’t so good, and as a result, I don’t think we can be friends.
Investile Dysfunction Blog
Brilliont
I find it did very bad. For example, I search a drug "Tacrolimus", but it returned with no result. Bad.
I share the same feeling. I tried several terms with Cuil, but the results were unsatisfactory. I doubt if Cuil can really defeat Google? Besides having the most powerful search engine in the world, Google also features other optional products such as documents, personalized hompages, e-mail services, and other interesting gadgets. Though mostly criticized for its possible privacy infringement, Google still boasts the largest marketshare in the US. My conclusion is that any new technology or innovative inventions must take users and their preferences and habits into consideration before it can succeed in replacing the giant Google.
my opinion:
TYPING SUGGESTION: it perfectly works for me. Can be enable/disable by clicking on preferences
RELATED SEARCH: i like the menu, i like the result
SEARCH RESULTS: i agree bad for searching people, mainly good to search about general information on a wide topic.
INTERFACE: i like it very much.
IBM and Microsoft colors
use www.comparesearch.org to compare
cheers
carlos
They have burned up the servers. They don't configured the load balance system well and people couldn't get service for a while. It can't be a Google Killer. Google is still the King.
Used it. Not convinced. good to see though.
http://www.carlknibbs.net/blog/2008/7/28/cuil-better-than-google.html
Where are they pulling the page images from. I checked my site (http://www.pc-chaperone.com) with three keyword searches I'm interested in. I was pleased to see I was on page one, but in all cases the image wasn't from my site. Not only that, it was different for all three searches!!!!
Cuil even p_sses off mommies and kids. Wow, when you do that you know that you've totally screwed up.
http://parentzing.wordpress.com
They'd better go to their room and think about what they've done. Or no dessert.
The interface is kool as they call it but the results are irrelevant and horrible..
I have done a research on the search relevancy and compared it to google. You can find it here.. Hope they would learn from the mistakes
http://knol.google.com/k/guna-nadar/search-relevance-google-vs-cuil/18pn58gwhohkh/5
I would think that the corpus they are processing is a living, breathing thing, and that the means of ranking it will always be morphing and improving.
Maybe they intentionally made a miss to get the hype machine going, rather than letting it compete at 75% and getting essentially no news.
I have a family website and a business one. I am a published writer and - when Googled - my work is everywhere on the Net - from the online edition of the Sydney Mornings Herald to the UK's Cat World Magazine and more - however - when I 'Cuiled' my name I discovered that I simply do not exist! At all!
Nice getting essentially no news
Even if the search engine does not make it big, it's concept is great and would be considered by Google to make itself even better.
I too will not use it.. I performed a search for "Dell E" the new netbook that's being released soon, & has had tons of articles written about it, but didn't get one good hit. Plus, i hate the the long descriptions listed under each hit, most of which aren't even relevant..
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