Comments on: Cuil has gotten everyone excited – but why ?

By: Gautam Kshatriya

Gautam Kshatriya — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:54:18 +0000

You often hear the phrase, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. In Cuil’s case, I’m not so sure. While they did a great job of building up hype (“The Google killer has arrived!”), they fell short of delivery. And the startup community – especially bloggers have slammed them for this – pretty mercilessly.

After searching for 3-4 terms as a test, I could immediately see the difference. When I keyed in the term ‘Content Sutra’ a few hits on contentsutramixer.eventbrite.com showed up, but no contentsutra.com. I tried again, this time searching for contentsutra.com – but didn’t get much better results. This is fairly surprising given that CS is probably one of the most popular startup blogs in for the Indian Startup scene.

I guess this is a good lesson on how ‘too much PR’ can be bad for you. That said, Compete.com shows that had 2mn unique monthly visitors in July. I wonder if that will be sustained, or indeed grow, once people have checked it out and been disappointed.

I’m still hopeful however. I think Google’s dominance needs to be challenged and I wish Cuil all the best. I am certainly going to check in on them now and then to see whether their results have improved.

Gautam Kshatriya
gautam.kshatriya@moneyvidya.com
http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:42:14 +0000

I think Google has become a ‘necessary evil’ in people’s mind. Everyone needs it, but they are afraid of its growth. People are afraid of Google accumulating power as the time passes by and then turn evil (like it happens in the movies).

Cuil, ain’t cool.

1) Users are used to the look at SERPs top to bottom and not left to right. Cuil is trying to make user learn the way they thing it should be. It does not work this way, unless you have a really compelling product.

2) Categories – Look ok, but their navigation is an hindrance. Don’t expect me to mouse-over each of the category to see the hidden results (see http://www.cuil.com/search?q=bollywood ). If you are confident about them, bring ‘em out. On this specific query, it seems like they have old data. Been ages ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’ was _famous_

3) Better Results. At this time, ‘china Olympics’ seems to be showing documents based on just the keyword density. I think more than 2 term searches will mostly yield crappy results.

PS – Like the new theme!

By: pranav

pranav — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:27:41 +0000

@rabi

I agree – I like the very same features that you point out.. found them pretty likeable

@cyril
couldnt agree with you more..

By: Mohamed Azam

Mohamed Azam — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:17:50 +0000

An amazing search engine. Good that Google’s dominance is eing challenged with a simple interface but strong platform.

Cheers!

By: Cyril Gupta

Cyril Gupta — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:58:35 +0000

Hi, I find your third argument the most powerful. I think more than gullibility, it’s hoping that something will come up and show Google a thing or two. The Internet community has had enough of Google’s ‘We’re the Masters’, and ‘We don’t answer to none’ attitude.

I don’t know about Cuil, but I think this is the beginning of the end for Google if it doesn’t become more responsible.

If it won’t be Cuil, it would be someone else. If not now then not very long way off.

Maintaining the top position on the net is harder than getting to the top, because people are always looking for the next big thing.

Cheers!
Cyril

By: Rabi

Rabi — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:16:51 +0000

Wht I likd about Cuil is the experience they provide rather than a plane search. The chances here are more that u’ll stick to there website because of some useful features like”Browse by categry”, “Suggestions” based on keywords etc….
Search is more enjoyable hr, but still every1 knows why google is at the top (KISS!)….moreover if they claim they dont track our private data, hw can they manage to earn money???

By: Azez

Azez — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:40:33 +0000

Cross comment, but I’ve to new layout is very fresh and cool
Cuil is not that bad wokay

By: Web Service

Web Service — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:24:07 +0000

Spend the day at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay and enjoy some good times with the family. Web Service