Sunday, December 27, 2009, 9:55AM ET - U.S. Markets Closed.

How Hot Is Cuil?

Posted Jul 28, 2008 04:36pm EDT by Sarah Lacy in Investing, Internet, Venture Capital, M and A, IPOs

A new startup has the Valley all aflutter today. It's called Cuil and that's pronounced "cool" and according to Valley insiders it's very cool indeed.

Cuil is the brainchild of Tom Costello, Anna Patterson and Russell Power. Patterson and Power are ex-Googlers and Cuil aims to take on Google in its core search market. What makes them think they can?

  • The site has indexed 120 billion Web pages, which it argues is more than any other player -- a fact Google denied even before Cuil's launch.
  • Cuil's search results have a distinct magazine-style layout
  • Cuil boasts a different approach to understand how words are "related" on a page, that it claims will yield better results
  • Cuil will not store your personal searches

But most important is Cuil's back end technology. According to Valley lore, the core of the company is a new way to build mass-scale search far cheaper. That's not trivial to anyone trying to take on Google, a company that spends a reported $1 billion a year running the back end of its search business. So if Cuil is so great, why doesn't Google just buy them? According to insiders, they already did. So, consider the hype built. Can Cuil really deliver?

Most techies are snarking about Cuil's inferior search results now that they're finally able to use this much anticipated site. What's your experience?

59 Comments

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 28, 2008 04:45PM EDT

I've used Cuil all day today and found the results to be excellent. I am sticking with Cuil.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 28, 2008 05:04PM EDT

Pretty pathetic search. I'll never use it again

m
m - Monday July 28, 2008 05:04PM EDT

I tried to get on several times, and was not successful......... hope that the hype lives up to it!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 28, 2008 05:04PM EDT

'eh I'll stick with google for now. Seems to be ok but has a long way to go...

Karri J
Karri J - Monday July 28, 2008 05:04PM EDT

A new "ask Jeeves"?? Long live GOOG

Tom
Tom - Monday July 28, 2008 05:06PM EDT

One of the worst search engines I have ever used. Search for .NET and you get "no results found". Google finds it. I do more searches and nothing relevant on CUIL where Google is most of the time pretty accurate. So I went to CUIL and searched for Dogs. BINGO! I found plenty of material on dogs. The problem is, I don't really want to search on dogs.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 28, 2008 05:06PM EDT

Tried it, slow and inferior to Goog

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 28, 2008 05:07PM EDT

It is terrible. It gives the impression of inaccuracy by offering half of the results that seems to be coming from the left. Instead it should 20 results that seems to be related. It is difficult to look through the result and find the right one. So it is more time consuming. I guess I would use cuil if I am not really sure what I am searching for. So it can give off-tangent results that may be what I am really looking for.

garym
garym - Monday July 28, 2008 05:08PM EDT

I tried to look up my business today, Gary Moore DDS, and it did NOT show up my webpage , which readily shows up on google, yahoo,etc. obviously their technology is not all that great- needs work?????

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 28, 2008 05:08PM EDT

I try to search simple key work like "I" or "A" and it crashed. Ah well!! And so slow....

split29_2005
split29_2005 - Monday July 28, 2008 05:08PM EDT

Not for me. I looked for "how to build a dock" and got 77 results, none of which (in 2 pages) were helpful in building a dock. Google delivered 9,750,000 results for the same search and the first dozen results had all sorts of helpful info. Then, after searching for my daughter's name (I own the domain for her website) got a full page of escorts, in my town, all with the same obscure name. My daughter's site disn't appear anywhere in the Cuil list, although Google delivers it early in the search results. Finally, although I am not famous, I searched for my own name. I found a number of references to others with the same name but when I added my city, only one single result was delivered and although my name was present, the name of the city was nowhere in the text. Sorry Cuil but I'll be sticking with Google for the forseeable future. Your product is just a bit too Cuir for me...

Daddy Shoe
Daddy Shoe - Monday July 28, 2008 05:08PM EDT

Cuil is very fast in loading websites, but it's still missing a lot of search features that Google produced.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 28, 2008 05:09PM EDT

I've used it once. The page I was searching for wasn't there, but it shows up with Yahoo and Google. Maybe one day.

Felicity
Felicity - Monday July 28, 2008 05:11PM EDT

Yahoo finfnce user I hav tried to use Cuil off and all day. Come back sorry to much load. Not suprising for a first day. Lots of curious folks out there

Daddy Shoe
Daddy Shoe - Monday July 28, 2008 05:11PM EDT

Cuil is very fast in loading websites, but it's still missing a lot of search features that Google produces. It's a hit and missed, mainly misses with Cuil (for now)...

split29_2005
split29_2005 - Monday July 28, 2008 05:11PM EDT

how to build a dock Google 9,750,000 results - lots of help on the first page of results. Cuil 77 results - none of the results were helpful on the first 2 pages. Not going to happen in the near term for me.

Luis
Luis - Monday July 28, 2008 05:13PM EDT

List format sucks. Could not find an option to display simple list. Search text in bold? Yuck. Who designed their pages?

__A_YAHOO_USER__
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Monday July 28, 2008 05:14PM EDT

I gave it a try but i doubt the have more data than google cause 1/2 of the stuff i look for i couldn't find but is does look good though

Jeffrey
Jeffrey - Monday July 28, 2008 05:14PM EDT

Not that impressed. Searched for a consumer product, a few people and a news article. The results were less relevant and useful.

LZ
LZ - Monday July 28, 2008 05:14PM EDT

No results because of high load...

Yahoo! reserves the right to refuse, or remove any comment that does not comply with the Yahoo! Terms of Service. The submission of spam, hateful, or obscene messages may result in the termination of your Yahoo! ID.
About Tech Ticker - Send FeedbackDisclaimer. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright/IP Policy - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy - Help
Quotes delayed, except where indicated otherwise. Delay times are 15 mins for NASDAQ, NYSE and Amex. See also delay times for other exchanges.

Quotes and other information supplied by independent providers identified on the Yahoo! Finance partner page. Quotes are updated automatically, but will be turned off after 25 minutes of inactivity. Quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes for NASDAQ, NYSE and Amex. See also delay times for other exchanges. Real-Time continuous streaming quotes are available through our premium service. You may turn streaming quotes on or off. Fundamental company data provided by Capital IQ. Financials data provided by Edgar Online. Historical chart data and daily updates provided by Commodity Systems, Inc. (CSI). International historical chart data, daily updates, fund summary, fund performance, dividend data and Morningstar Index data provided by Morningstar, Inc. Analyst estimates data provided by Thomson Financial Network. All data provided by Thomson Financial Network is based solely upon research information provided by third party analysts. Yahoo! has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. Yahoo! and ThomsonFN shall not be liable for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All information provided "as is" for informational purposes only, not intended for trading purposes or advice. Neither Yahoo! nor any of independent providers is liable for any informational errors, incompleteness, or delays, or for any actions taken in reliance on information contained herein. By accessing the Yahoo! site, you agree not to redistribute the information found therein.