Comments on: Cool Discussion of Cuil

By: Cuil.com Gets Better : Beyond Search

Cuil.com Gets Better : Beyond Search — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:02:29 +0000

[...] I did a fly over of the Cuil.com Web site. What triggered an overflight was a Google patent; specifically, US20090070312, “Integrating External Related Phrase Information into a Phrase-Based Indexing Information Retrieval System”. Filed in September 2007, the USPTO spit it out on March 12, 2009. I discussed a chain of Dr. Patterson’s inventions in my 2007 study Google Version 2.0 here. Dr. Patterson is no longer a full-time Googler, the tendrils of her research from Xift to Cuil pass through the GOOG. When I looked at Cuil.com today (March 29, 2007), I ran my suite of test queries. Most of them returned more useful and accurate results than my first look at the system in July 2008 here. [...]

By: Cruel to Cuil : Beyond Search

Cruel to Cuil : Beyond Search — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:04:11 +0000

[...] down on Cuil. I wrote about this service when it first rolled out. You can read that article here. You can find CNet’s take on the failure of Cuil here. Matt Asay’s “Breaking the [...]

By: Pat

Pat — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:36:42 +0000

I like the ‘magazine’ look of the web-site search results. I’d perfer a little more white – perhaps as a border – since a full-sized window of black didn’t impress. It looks as though it could be (or would better be) used as the search widget for a portal.

My first search worked well – I searched ‘porch leak’ and got a good question-answer piece. When I cuiled ‘porch leak french drain’ I got no results. Yet ‘french drain’ appeared in the search result text. While Google often gives too many answers, I’m was not happy with none.

I also cuiled ‘cuil npr’. Some foreign sites were returned with no connection to my search. Google directed me (first item) to the npr site to get the 57 second soundtrack from the npr broadcast. I’m guessing these oversights will be remedied, but they left me a little disappointed.

By: Outsider

Outsider — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:44:25 +0000

Well like many i went to look at the new search tool.. I wasn’t impressed at all. I did comparative searches on random subjects with cuil and google and the results with google were closer to what i was really expecting to find. The one nice thing about it though is it not logging search info on users.

Also Looking up the domain name information it seems they have there home info on in it ( tom ) is the person who owns this domain. Google maps even has a street level view of there house lol. Anyway if you have complaints just look up the domain info and tell tom yourself as his home number is now public info.

By: Stephen E. Arnold

Stephen E. Arnold — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:45:17 +0000

Igor, thanks for taking the time to post. Anna Patterson was a Googler, but Google doesn’t make much of an effort to shine the spotlight on people. Dr. Patterson is the author of a series of patent documents related to indexing systems and methods. As part of the research team, she’s not running around conferences or enjoying the noon hour entertainment with other Googlers and their guests. She’s and her colleagues are the real deal.

Stephen Arnold, July 29, 2008

By: Igor

Igor — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:14:32 +0000

From a cursory review, Cuil seems to work pretty well – better than MSN search, at least, but for me, not as well as google.com in some respects.

The headlines saying how Cuil had “former top Google engineers” caught my eye, but I worked there for several years starting before 2000, and never heard any of their names before now, so that seems a bit of a stretch.

Good luck to them though.

By: Stephen E. Arnold

Stephen E. Arnold — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:44:00 +0000

Vince, Jeff,

Thank you for posting. Cuil is new and promising. Competition is good for everyone. Anna and her team (excluding her kids and dogs who will watch) will get the system up and running soon.

Stephen Arnold, July 28, 2008

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:49:12 +0000

Just to add…tried doing a search (several times) 30 seconds ago on Cuil and this is the response I got (that is something Google never does and does not engender faith in Cuil):

“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.”

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:22:44 +0000

I took a quick peek at Cuil and was not overly impressed.

Some of it may have to do with simply being used to Google. While Googles layout is uninteresting it is functional. Cuil’s results layout I find harder to navigate as simply.

Additionally Cuil does not hand you news results as part of your search as Google does. I find this feature of Google of great use as often I am looking for a media report on a subject and not the webpage of the subject itself.

Finally, Cuils’ results seem off a bit. I Googled a website I am involved with and while Cuil returned links it did not return the basic homepage link at all on the first page (returned articles more deeply embedded in the site). I used the name of the website as the search so this was odd. Additionally, I searchedon the term “cuil” on Cuil’s site and it returned nothing about them at all opting to show me links to Ireland and windmills and restaurants.

I really, really like that Cuil will not track users searches as Google does. Just on principle I very much dislike Google for doing this but so far I am not seeing Cuil as a Google killer.

Here’s hoping though that Google finally gets some decent competition!

By: Vince

Vince — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:53:27 +0000

Actually the black front page may do well for them if they take off. Good contrast to the whiteness of Google.

Cuil is ok. Not as amazing as hyped up. I did a bit more research and wrote about it today on the blog, shortly after discovering it. They seem to over index and under deliver. I’m sure it’ll improve in time. $33 million in funding, with ex Google employees and a great concept.

But will it kill Google? lol… i v much doubt it!!

Vince (Hong Kong Wong)

BTW I also just wrote further thoughts on Cuil and some facts about the company here on my blog if interested:
http://hongkongwong.com/2008/07/the-cuil-google-killer-cuilcom/