When you've got Google, who needs another search engine, right? That didn't stop the folks over at Cuil (pronounced COOL) who claim to provide a new approach to search which
Do we need a new way to search? Why not? Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) encouraged users to enter search queries as questions that they'd ask a normal human being. More importantly though, according to Cuil's Management page some of their employees used to work at Google. Me thinks that's reason enough to pay attention. Of course, most Internet users don't care for revolutionary search algorithm techniques; it's the final search results that matters.
Running my own rudimentary test I searched for Street Fighter (don't ask me why, it's just how I test out new search engines.) The first thing I noticed was the horizontal list of tabs that help further define my search results, in this case the different releases of Street Fighter.
A very neat addition but surprisingly the hottest thing in Street Fighter right now, the barely-one-week-old Street Fighter 4, is hidden within the more... tab. If the tabs implemented some intelligent current-event context, and I wouldn't rule this out completely, they'd be much more helpful.
Secondly, Cuil provides a panel along the right that suggests particular categories related to my search. In my case it offers me, among other things, to search among the different Street Fighter characters. Since Safe Search was on it didn't suggest more, erm, revealing results.
What I find most interesting though is the way the search results are laid out. By default they are displayed in 2-columns but with a quick click you can have them display in 3. It makes me wonder why I put up with Google's listing of search results (though Google Images does layout the results in a column-row grid fashion.) Selectively adding images to the search results is also a nice touch though I'd much prefer a screenshot of the linked site.
So far, Cuil looks promising enough to warrant changing my default search engine for a few days. I only hope they do away with the Apple-inspired Web 2.0 design. That's so 2007.
I still remember the first day I laid eyes on Google's main page. It looked pretty much the same it does now: undistinguished. On that same day I also stumbled upon the now-defunct Teoma (which now points to Ask.com). Google stayed, Teoma didn't. Let's see if Cuil will become the new Internet-inspired verb.
combines the biggest Web index with content-based relevance methods, results organized by ideas, and complete user privacy.
Do we need a new way to search? Why not? Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) encouraged users to enter search queries as questions that they'd ask a normal human being. More importantly though, according to Cuil's Management page some of their employees used to work at Google. Me thinks that's reason enough to pay attention. Of course, most Internet users don't care for revolutionary search algorithm techniques; it's the final search results that matters.
Running my own rudimentary test I searched for Street Fighter (don't ask me why, it's just how I test out new search engines.) The first thing I noticed was the horizontal list of tabs that help further define my search results, in this case the different releases of Street Fighter.
A very neat addition but surprisingly the hottest thing in Street Fighter right now, the barely-one-week-old Street Fighter 4, is hidden within the more... tab. If the tabs implemented some intelligent current-event context, and I wouldn't rule this out completely, they'd be much more helpful.
Secondly, Cuil provides a panel along the right that suggests particular categories related to my search. In my case it offers me, among other things, to search among the different Street Fighter characters. Since Safe Search was on it didn't suggest more, erm, revealing results.
What I find most interesting though is the way the search results are laid out. By default they are displayed in 2-columns but with a quick click you can have them display in 3. It makes me wonder why I put up with Google's listing of search results (though Google Images does layout the results in a column-row grid fashion.) Selectively adding images to the search results is also a nice touch though I'd much prefer a screenshot of the linked site.
So far, Cuil looks promising enough to warrant changing my default search engine for a few days. I only hope they do away with the Apple-inspired Web 2.0 design. That's so 2007.
I still remember the first day I laid eyes on Google's main page. It looked pretty much the same it does now: undistinguished. On that same day I also stumbled upon the now-defunct Teoma (which now points to Ask.com). Google stayed, Teoma didn't. Let's see if Cuil will become the new Internet-inspired verb.
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