Hot or Cuil

So Cuil, another new search engine has entered the market, claiming to be a Google killer with more advanced indexing algorithms. With the search engines founders coming from within the Google and IBM ranks you’d expect they would have a better chance that most, it’s a pity that with the current system it’s little more than a pipe dream.

Sure I’m basing this solely on my own opinion but I do have some reasons to back up my claim:

Layout

Cuil displays search results in a 2 or 3 column layout, against the traditional one column layout. Although giving users something different can attract an audience I think changing something that works is an unnecessary gamble.

Features

Understandably the feature set is limited due to the age of the search engine but simple features such as advanced search functions are missing. Few users may use these functions but professionals in the Internet community, the leading audience in most new web applications, would expect these simple features.

Infrastructure

With articles about Cuil flooding the Internet you would expect they’re servers would be hit hard, but to be faced with error messages explaining search results could not be found due to server load may very well lose the site any chance of repeat traffic.

Indexing

With a search index reportedly as large as Google’s I would hope that my search may rank, even if the domain is still fairly new. Unfortunately not, although other search engines such as Live do not rank me highly I am still able to find my site in the listings.

Revenue

The site appears to have no method of generating revenue from either selling ads or displaying ads, without a system of generating revenue Cuil’s growth may suffer from lack of funds.

Design

Although a search engines is more about features than design I cannot help looking at the effectiveness of the design. Luckily they kept the minimalistic look that aided Google’s climb to the top; however the design appears to lack a certain sleekness that attracts my eye.

Niche

There are a lot of search engines entering the market to try and topple Google, however some position themselves in a smaller or niche markets to better search a smaller audience, possibly with the intention of one day challenging Google. Cuil has launched with the intention of trying to serve the whole search market, this may weaken their ability to attract any audience, even a niche one.

Conclusion

I do wish Cuil all the best in challenging Google crown, however I feel they have a challenge in not only taking on Google but also to create a search engine capable of doing so. I still see a Yahoo and Microsoft merger the best opportunity in creating a search engine able to even out the monopoly Google has in the online search market.