Update: Cuil

So, remember when I wrote on the very interesting and ground-breaking news about the newest, coolest search engine ever???? Okay, I have tested the baby out and let me tell you my thoughts. Basically, it doesn’t even begin to live up to the hype and made me really miss Google. I like that Google is not just a web search engine, but also a map, news search, image search, etc.

BUT, if we just compare Cuil to Google as a search engine, Google still is better at reading my mind and finding me pertinent websites. For example, when using Cuil I would do simple searches for recipes and only be presented with one or two links to recipes and then a bunch of non-related links. Also with Cuil, if you make a typo or are unsure of the spelling, the chances of pulling up what you want are slim to none and there are no spelling suggestions like with Google. However, Cuil does suggest what you may be looking for, but it seems that you are almost limited to the offered suggestions. With this seemingly limited number of valid searches, Cuil is closer to an encyclopedia in that you need to know what subject you want to research (eg: tigers) and then look up that subject, not what you specifically want to know about that subject (eg: tigers with Lisa Frank doodles from 1992). Another thing I noticed is that oftentimes with Cuil you can’t type in large strings of information, such as “how to can tomatoes like they did in 1900’s” without being directed to an error message.

Overall, I found Cuil to be pretty incompetent at its job, but it seems eager to improve. I noticed that you can now search for “map.”

ninjagarden