Cuil - No Competition to Google
I knew we will have somebody soon trying to compete with the mighty Google in the web search market and here they are - CUIL - meaning Knowledge . They opened their service today with some claims “Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.” . This means they have more pages indexed in the server to look into. I think the number of pages indexes doesn’t matter but it really matters how intelligently you use an algorithm to bring out the best results out of the pages you have indexed.
Some insights on what I felt when I tried some fast tests on the new search engine. I was not at all impressed by the results I got for some typical keywords that anybody can look on the internet. I searched for ‘order food online’ , the keywords that someone search for finding take away food in their country .The first four results were fine and a bit related, but not the best ones in the market right now. I was also given some blog posts which had the keywords in their content. And that was never expected too.
Other changes that can be seen are the three column page layout when the results are shown . I really don’t think the we are unhappy with the current simple and straight layout from Google .Also I didn’t find the page to include some thing new or innovative in their idea .Google have always tried to make things simple and they were successful in fulfilling the users requirements.
I really think if any company wants to compete with Google their first and last improvement must be in Search quality. As a frequent reader of Google research blog, I am pretty sure that they are well ahead in future ideas and are going to come with something new for the semantic web or the future Web 3.0.
It didn’t look good to me when a start up come in public hinting at competing with the big players before proving their quality in search. I feel ‘Cuil’ needs to improve a lot in their search quality and need to compete with the smaller players before aiming to the top.
posted by Ratish Naroor at
6:42 PM
4 Comments:
I really dont agree with your statement that it is OK not to index everything. That is one of the biggest monopoly secrets of Google. If they dont care about your website, then no one on this planet can even access it unless they know the exact url themselves. I think these guys have some idea of what they are doing ... Look at all the people behind it and also the investors. I will give them some more time before i really judge them :)
I truly agree your point Sunil , but I never said their Idea is bad or they will be unsuccessful in their efforts but they hype they or others creating with a market leader if not working.Its always good to be a silent player and improve the quality and then involve in the competition.As two of the founders are ex-googlers they might know how the company is running but Google have a lot of experience in this field and they are planning alot for the future too.
Also as I mentioned, they will require more time and improvements to make a mark to be on the top.
Good writing man...keep it up....!!!
Well, just few points I would like to mention:
1: Strength of Google Search techniques.
2: Popularity of Google and the way it has become a part of our lives.
3: Amount of money google have.
4: Google's diversification into different applications and services.
Cuil search works well once you get in, but the search engine needs a lot of love and nurturing from users for it to have a chance to compete with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Give it a shot, but realize that Cuil search is a work in progress.
But don't get too comfortable; it's only a matter of time before Cuil looks to monetize with ads to see some return on the $33 million investment venture capitalists have made in the company.
Who can say if users will drop Google for Cuil? That's up to all of us. What side of the fence are you on?
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