NOT SO CUIL

It8217;s Cuil vs Google. For the uninitiated, Cuil pronounced as cool is the latest search engine to hit the Web. In a world that runs on Google...

It8217;s Cuil vs Google. For the uninitiated, Cuil pronounced as cool is the latest search engine to hit the Web. In a world that runs on Google, Cuil did manage to create some pre-launch stir. The expectations were quite high. It8217;s not as if others have not tried to challenge Google8217;s monopoly. Teoma, Vivisimo, Snap, Mahalo and, most recently Powerset have been there and done that. But this time the challenge was different. The challengers were a bunch from the Google pack itself.

Cuil founder president Anna Patterson joined Google in 2004 after designing, writing and selling Recall8212;then the largest search engine with 12 billion pages. Vice-presidents Russell Power and Louis Monier, too, have done time at Google. But have they been able to recreate the magic of Googleplex. The Indian Express checks it out:

The homepage has a slick and appealing blue-black-gray look. It8217;s a welcome change from the white background of most other search engines. The interface is uncluttered yet inviting. Cuil claims to be the 8220;the world8217;s biggest search engine, searching three times as many pages as Google and ten times that of Microsoft8221;. It claims to search about 120 billion web pages. But Google says its index is bigger, though it8217;s yet to reveal the numbers.

The results show up in an innovative column format. But it does take a while to get used to this if you are accustomed to the regular formats. However, it displays relatively long entries along with thumbnail pictures. There is also a sidebar that gives further options on your query.

The look, the style, the presentation are all there, but Cuil hasn8217;t been able to raise the bar when it comes to performance. Even though it claims to crawl through the largest number of web pages, the number of search results is relatively less. Google throws up a larger number of results for most queries, and most of them are more relevant too.

And Cuil seems to have forgotten about image search, news and other add-ons that give Google the edge. Moreover, when it comes to random searches like 8216;book market Sunday Delhi,8217; Google gives more relevant and localised search results. In this case, Google gave 119,000 results while Cuil had just a 100 hits.

But where Cuil scores over Google is its privacy policy. It doesn8217;t keep any personal information regarding the users. 8220;When you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information. Your search history is your business, not ours.8221;

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Google8217;s servers on the other hand automatically record information when you visit its website or use their products, including the URL, IP address, browser type and language, and the date and time of request 8220;to provide a better user experience, including customising content for you8221;.

Though it8217;s unfair to compare Cuil to Google, which has been ruling the Net for about a decade, the new entrant has definitely not lived up to the hype surrounding it. It8217;s anything but the 8216;Google killer8217;. Nevertheless, considering the kind of people behind the venture, Cuil may be winding up for a better future.

The company explains that the word 8216;cuil8217; is Irish for knowledge8212;8220;For knowledge, ask Cuil8221; says its catchline. But, for now, be content with the knowledge that it8217;s not so cuil.