4 ms·

Cuil Launches -- Can This Search Start-Up Really Best Google?

14 points by nickb 18y ago

xenoterracide 18y ago
interesting... I think the columns make it hard to read though... kinda poor ui there. otherwise it looks good.
tdavis 18y ago
The relevance is completely awful. I did a search in Cuil and ended up with a serp where 6 of 10 results were for the same site and the rest were comprised completely of ridiculous sites like one-page sales-pitches.
deepster 18y ago
1) Make the search box on main page bigger and move it up a little bit. 2) I want larger navigation page numbers and icons. Center it once again. Maybe put page numbers on top as well. 3) Make safe search on/off a toggle switch. I don't want to go to another page and then hit save etc. 4) black/blue motif just hurts my eyes. 5) Ditto with the font It's amazing how ingrained searching Google is for me. When I want to advance the search page, I instinctively move my cursor to the bottom right of my screen. Whenever I search on Yahoo or Live the presentation of the results just seem visually painful.
geuis 18y ago
I have a personal litmus test for new search engines - a vanity search on myself. I know my own content across the web better than anyone else's. By far, Google still rates far and above for returning the fullest and most pertinent set of results than any others. Cuil fails at this. More generally, I compared common searches I do regularly relating to things like "javascript framework" and "css" and the results were poor. Its not only about who has the biggest index. Its about retrieving the most relevant data from that index. To be more crude, its not about the size of your <guess>, its about how you use it.
- wheels 18y ago
  Same litmus test, got nothing. Tried a couple of other topics I know well, results weren't particularly good. The presentation is moderately interesting though.
  - axod 18y ago
    Interesting, yes, but I don't think a column layout works for a list of search results. It's much harder to scan.
    - wheels 18y ago
      I didn't mean the layout so much as that the description of the hit doesn't necessarily come from the text of the page. For instance, the description of kde.org is pulled out of Wikipedia. I'm not sure that approach works, but I think it's an interesting path to flesh out.
- davidw 18y ago
  They appear to have fiddled with something. I got no results earlier, but now I do, and while they're not great, it's much better than nothing.
- babul 18y ago
  Google has had a lot of time and resource to index your content. So it is not a fair compariosn yet. Give Cuil time to develop/index and then see the results. On a side note, Cuil takes forever to load compared to Google, and search results aside, that is a major issue they need to address asap.
  - TFrancis 18y ago
    I don't think we ought to excuse Cuil and provide them more time before we judge the search engine. They've had all the time they needed and put out a press release saying so.
- swombat 18y ago
osi 18y ago
cuil fails my vanity test as well.
illume 18y ago
these are bad: - relevance of search results - colors - layout of search results - specialisation for different types of search results is no where near where google is. - some searches for things I know about returned 0 results. Also... frames? If they think google hasn't been updating their search engine for ages they are kidding themselves. Google has done very well to keep the design consistent for about a decade, but things are changing all the time.
tss 18y ago
I'm not impressed so far. A search for "linux find and replace multiple files" returned zero results. On google it returns 280,000. Further reducing the query to "find and replace multiple files" and "find replace multiple files" still return zero results.
timcederman 18y ago
Hah, I also used the vanity search test and Cuil failed pretty badly. I have an extremely unique name too - http://www.cederman.com/?p=97 http://www.cederman.com/?p=97
petercooper 18y ago
My first search resulted in a 404 page several seconds later. Then.. it went totally down for a few minutes. Now, it redirects everything to http://www.cuil.com/info/unavailable.html http://www.cuil.com/info/unavailable.html Interesting first impression! Google didn't have this trouble, but then back in 1999 we didn't have billions of Webheads flocking to whatever was new and shiny... that was the investors' job ;-)
greyman 18y ago
Let's give them some more time so they can prove themselves.
schtog 18y ago
The ranking is unclear, top left is 1 I guess but then middle top or left middle? More important, results are not impressive. Why is it that this would beat Google?
coffeeaddicted 18y ago
It seems they are rather restrictive with their results. I tried it with "what is cuil?" and didn't get a single answer. Also I don't really expect to get that much improvement from the typical one-shot-editbox searchengines anymore. There's only so much information you can get out of a handful of words (that is unless they start to actually understand the intend of questions and content of pages). I suppose results could improve if the searchengines would enter a session or dialog after the first try. Some way to make clear that you're still searching the same stuff, only trying other words because the first result haven't been good enough. I think when I fire off several searches in a row far more than half the time the reason is that I'm trying to improve my results. Cuil's categories are a step in that direction.
Hexstream 18y ago
At the outset, I'm wary of any company whose primary claim is that they'll beat <current market leader>. If they're truly in a class apart, why would they need to rely on a stunt like that? "Look, we're related to <current market leader>: we'll be the ones to beat them. We'll do exactly what they do except better." I think that's just a bad way to frame a company's mission. It looks arrogant and defensive. Show, don't tell.
EricFriedman 18y ago
Vanity searches can work well for a test but I do not think the index is big enough yet for a real comparison. I would say wait to see what happens once they are 1 week, 1 month, etc... out of the launch gates.
Oompa 18y ago
http://www.cuil.com/search?q=os%20x&sl=long http://www.cuil.com/search?q=os%20x&sl=long Seriously?

14 points by nickb 18y ago

interesting... I think the columns make it hard to read though... kinda poor ui there. otherwise it looks good.

The relevance is completely awful. I did a search in Cuil and ended up with a serp where 6 of 10 results were for the same site and the rest were comprised completely of ridiculous sites like one-page sales-pitches.

deepster 18y ago

1) Make the search box on main page bigger and move it up a little bit. 2) I want larger navigation page numbers and icons. Center it once again. Maybe put page numbers on top as well. 3) Make safe search on/off a toggle switch. I don't want to go to another page and then hit save etc. 4) black/blue motif just hurts my eyes. 5) Ditto with the font It's amazing how ingrained searching Google is for me. When I want to advance the search page, I instinctively move my cursor to the bottom right of my screen. Whenever I search on Yahoo or Live the presentation of the results just seem visually painful.

geuis 18y ago

I have a personal litmus test for new search engines - a vanity search on myself. I know my own content across the web better than anyone else's. By far, Google still rates far and above for returning the fullest and most pertinent set of results than any others. Cuil fails at this. More generally, I compared common searches I do regularly relating to things like "javascript framework" and "css" and the results were poor. Its not only about who has the biggest index. Its about retrieving the most relevant data from that index. To be more crude, its not about the size of your <guess>, its about how you use it.

wheels 18y ago
Same litmus test, got nothing. Tried a couple of other topics I know well, results weren't particularly good. The presentation is moderately interesting though.
- axod 18y ago
  Interesting, yes, but I don't think a column layout works for a list of search results. It's much harder to scan.
  - wheels 18y ago
    I didn't mean the layout so much as that the description of the hit doesn't necessarily come from the text of the page. For instance, the description of kde.org is pulled out of Wikipedia. I'm not sure that approach works, but I think it's an interesting path to flesh out.
davidw 18y ago
They appear to have fiddled with something. I got no results earlier, but now I do, and while they're not great, it's much better than nothing.
babul 18y ago
Google has had a lot of time and resource to index your content. So it is not a fair compariosn yet. Give Cuil time to develop/index and then see the results. On a side note, Cuil takes forever to load compared to Google, and search results aside, that is a major issue they need to address asap.
- TFrancis 18y ago
  I don't think we ought to excuse Cuil and provide them more time before we judge the search engine. They've had all the time they needed and put out a press release saying so.
swombat 18y ago

osi 18y ago

cuil fails my vanity test as well.

illume 18y ago

these are bad: - relevance of search results - colors - layout of search results - specialisation for different types of search results is no where near where google is. - some searches for things I know about returned 0 results. Also... frames? If they think google hasn't been updating their search engine for ages they are kidding themselves. Google has done very well to keep the design consistent for about a decade, but things are changing all the time.

tss 18y ago

I'm not impressed so far. A search for "linux find and replace multiple files" returned zero results. On google it returns 280,000. Further reducing the query to "find and replace multiple files" and "find replace multiple files" still return zero results.

timcederman 18y ago

Hah, I also used the vanity search test and Cuil failed pretty badly. I have an extremely unique name too - http://www.cederman.com/?p=97 http://www.cederman.com/?p=97

petercooper 18y ago

My first search resulted in a 404 page several seconds later. Then.. it went totally down for a few minutes. Now, it redirects everything to http://www.cuil.com/info/unavailable.html http://www.cuil.com/info/unavailable.html Interesting first impression! Google didn't have this trouble, but then back in 1999 we didn't have billions of Webheads flocking to whatever was new and shiny... that was the investors' job ;-)

greyman 18y ago

Let's give them some more time so they can prove themselves.

schtog 18y ago

The ranking is unclear, top left is 1 I guess but then middle top or left middle? More important, results are not impressive. Why is it that this would beat Google?

coffeeaddicted 18y ago

It seems they are rather restrictive with their results. I tried it with "what is cuil?" and didn't get a single answer. Also I don't really expect to get that much improvement from the typical one-shot-editbox searchengines anymore. There's only so much information you can get out of a handful of words (that is unless they start to actually understand the intend of questions and content of pages). I suppose results could improve if the searchengines would enter a session or dialog after the first try. Some way to make clear that you're still searching the same stuff, only trying other words because the first result haven't been good enough. I think when I fire off several searches in a row far more than half the time the reason is that I'm trying to improve my results. Cuil's categories are a step in that direction.

Hexstream 18y ago

At the outset, I'm wary of any company whose primary claim is that they'll beat <current market leader>. If they're truly in a class apart, why would they need to rely on a stunt like that? "Look, we're related to <current market leader>: we'll be the ones to beat them. We'll do exactly what they do except better." I think that's just a bad way to frame a company's mission. It looks arrogant and defensive. Show, don't tell.

EricFriedman 18y ago

Vanity searches can work well for a test but I do not think the index is big enough yet for a real comparison. I would say wait to see what happens once they are 1 week, 1 month, etc... out of the launch gates.

Oompa 18y ago

http://www.cuil.com/search?q=os%20x&sl=long http://www.cuil.com/search?q=os%20x&sl=long Seriously?