Cuil - the 'new' Google?

Over the past few days there seems to have been a lot of attention in the blogging community regarding the new search engine called CUIL.

www.cuil.com



So what is it? Cuil (pronounced "cool") is a search engine that officially launched on July 28th, 2008. Founded by a husband and wife team with a seasoned search team of many former Google employees, the site claims to the largest index of all search engines.

The main differences between Cuil and Google as mentioned on the FT Tech Blog are:
1) A drop-down suggestion box as you type your query means a quicker route to your answer and fewer page-views for Cuil - but it has no ads to serve at present.
2) A magazine-style three-column layout with pictures and fuller text makes a refreshing change from Google’s list pages.
3) Results are not based on popularity or topicality but intrinsic content. They say, “We are offering something that’s more about the content of the page rather than how much traffic it’s getting,”.
4) As Cuil does not care about popularity and therefore what its users are searching for, it does not keep logs. As well as saving a lot of space and processing power, this means it has unimpeachable privacy standards compared to Google, as it has nothing to keep private.

As many others have commented, i find the idea of Cuil very hard to get used to, and with Google now deep linked into a lot of our DNA it strikes me as interesting one to call. Yes Cuil seems flawed on many levels, but as obvious as it sounds this is very much dependant on what you are searching for. Cuil is a refreshing break from the familiar Google homepage, and the detail given on each search result is helpful. I don't think the writing is on the wall just yet for Cuil, and it will be interesting to see how the search engine develops.