CUIL: THE SECOND COMING OF GOOGLE…NOT QUITE!

The search giant Google (and partner in time of need) needs no introduction. On the other hand, if your “Cool” and your name is spelt “C-U-I-L”, it’s safe to say an introduction including your name, rank and badge number are the very least I could expect.

The truth is I hate when people try to be too cute with names but it's even worse when they don’t live up to all the hype. In fact, I first learnt of the launch of Cuil reading TechCrunch…a couple of posts spawning a raging discussion of former Google engineers who had just (last night) launched a new search engine. I swore I heard angels singing and trumpets heralding the second coming of the mighty Google…

Pah! So what’s with this all black background? Couldn’t they have gone with something a little less intimidating and sexually biased? Ok…what’s an ugly background anyway…the question was, could they really deliver superior search results? Pah…I said!

Jollyjo…21,000 returns compared to over 26,000 on Google. The “Second Coming”…ahh, a little different…primary search results complimented by secondary returns under related headings and an option to explore results in suggested categories. Not bad…but only 600,000 returns for “second coming” against over 5,700,000 for Google. As I said…Pah!

Rick Sanchez of CNN would have been just as disappointed, if not more. Here are the searches he tried. Rick Sanchez (returns 0), George Washington (returns 0) and some other what-the-heck name (returns 0). I agree with you Rick…maybe the lights are too bright. We should try some other time when Cuil has sorted out the technology and itself…like a new background, a better name and better search results…but isn’t that everything?

Ah well, another boy-cried-wolf “second coming” of Google. Second coming of Google…pah! It took me less than a minute to figure out that Cuil was not cool and definitely not the resurrection of Google…the “boy” in this case (Michael Arrington) would have known much better…pah!

Jollyjo Search Results

Second Coming Search Results