Cuil - A Google Killer?

Google, they’re starting to become if not already the ‘Microsoft’ of the internet. Hardly anyone uses their address bar anymore, now that Google has a searchbar implemented into Firefox. Of course with every empire-esque company there will be many others trying to take them down. None have had much success, but Cuil.com might be one to keep an eye on.

The search engine is a collaborative effort from Tom Costello, a Stanford professor, and Anna Patterson who helped craft Google’s search engine. They just happen to be husband and wife.

The name is pronounced “cool”, and just like it’s name has some pretty cool features to distinguish itself from Google. The first major difference from Google, is Cuil’s ranking system. Unlike Google who uses “PageRank”, or inbound links, Cuil searches content of a page to decide which sites get front page viewing. Another cool feature that Cuil boasts is its’ tabbed browsing much like web browsers have. So if you were to type in Nintendo you would get a general set of pages, but at the top there would be different tabs which would give a faster more refined search. What’s even bigger in my mind than its’ ranking system and tabbed searching is how it incorporates pictures with its search results.

When I worked at Best Buy, my boss always said to put the movies facing front. The reason being is because people like to see pictures when browsing, they don’t want to have to read. The same can be said for people when browsing the internet. I think the images that pop up for websites on Cuil will be a big factor in the coming weeks.

Cuil just launched today so it has some time to go before it can match with Google. But Google was able to overtake Yahoo and Alta Vista, so it’s possible that Cuil can do the same thing. Here’s a video with Tom Costello explaining more on what Cuil is about.