I wanted to believe, I really did. When I first saw the buzz about the new alternative to Google, Cuil, I looked into it optimistically. Cuil states a mission of not wanting to invade your privacy on searches, and touts very intelligent search functions, but so far in toying with the engine I feel unsatisfied. That is a poor place to start for a web searcher looking to combat the Colossus that Google represents.
Here’s the example I’ll give to highlight exactly how I feel about Cuil, discounting things like speed or layout design which will inevitably change. Ordinarily when using Google and I am looking for a Wikipedia page I’ll add “wiki” somewhere in the search phrase. I decided to give that a shot with Cuil and look up information on, oh let’s say, bees. Cuil couldn’t recognize the shortened term “wiki” and returned a “no information found” message. I normally don’t see that kind of message on Google except when I’m looking for something that is just so specific it would be nearly impossible to find a match (I.e. bee wiki October 14th Mexico Paul).
So instead “bee wiki” morphed into “bee Wikipedia,” to accommodate for Cuil’s insistence on full terms. I was not satisfied with the results. I got zero Wikipedia entries on what I was looking for, and what I did get was a Wikipedia page about a Krazy Bee Mixed Martial Arts dojo in Japan, among other equally asinine returns. What took the cake for me is that the kind of information I was looking for, just a simple wiki page on bees, was there but it was on the Creation Science wiki. I am flabbergasted that I got a Creationist wiki entry for bees, which seemed pretty accurate sadly, but absolutely no regular Wikipedia entries.
If Cuil is hoping to take over Google’s market using a poorly designed search engine that emphasizes protecting against invasion of privacy, what they could have done instead is actually mastered the search side of things. If they wanted to focus on protecting against the invasion of privacy, why not develop a program or web tool that guards against such things? It would likely go over much more smoothly. Cuil is looking, in my opinion, to be dead on arrival. I'm sure Microsoft is already eying them up as a possible acquisition.
Advertisement: |
Garett Kopczynski is an IT professional for the City of Keene, NH and has been involved in the transformation of the IT group as it increasingly explores cloud computing and other next-generation initiatives. His hands-on involvement with Google Apps, and its impact on the IT environment in a municipal government organization, gives him unique insight into other applications of Google within (and beyond) a corporate office environment. In addition to his role as an IT professional, Garett has also been involved in ongoing research efforts for a number of "future impact" technologies such as e-waste and open source vs. licensed software.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Cuil
Check cuil now. It seems to be working correctly now.
Nope it isn't. A search for
Nope it isn't. A search for bee wiki or bee wikipedia still fails.
Where is the image search of
Where is the image search of Cuil?
A good maxim is never out of
A good maxim is never out of season.
A happy heart makes a blooming visage
Actually..
it works if you type in "wikipedia bee", not the other way round.
That's kind of funny
I suppose that's one downside of being used to the ease of Google: I got used to not having to phrase my searches.
Thanks for bringing this up Mo. I'll have to do some more searches and come up with a follow up post. Expect more on this subject.
Hahaha are you kidding? You
Hahaha are you kidding? You are judging a search engine because it wont give you wikipedia pages? How lazy do you have to be to go to google, type in wiki something, and click the link instead of just going to wikipedia? Next time, try searching something more worthwhile than your wiki-fetish.
Cuil is Still Cold
I'm finding the same things in my attempts - google my name you get eight or nine hits. Cuil returns no relevant results. Google the company I work for - our company web site followed by a ton of relevant hits. Cuil provide a lot of useless junk with three hits about SEC filings buried in them.
Hopefully they will improve over time.
Google Vs Cuil ?...No way...
I searched for the keyword CUIL in Cuil.com....It didnt return the site's address !!! Cuil cant even locate itself !!!
Now I googled for Cuil...And I got cuil.com as the most relevant link at the top !!!
Cuil...Take a break...Google rocks !!!
The last time I tried using
The last time I tried using Cuil to find names I ended up getting nothing as well. I've seen some commentary about "vanity searches" and truth be told people do look for themselves or others. Part of it could just be curiosity, but a lot of people use that for job research and the like as well.
Post new comment