Middle East Directory - e-Business Column

Cuil (Pronounced ‘COOL’) is HOT?

Cuil.com is the spanking new search engine launched by a team of ex-Google and ex-Stanford University engineers with a US$ 33m venture capital funding. Cuil combines the biggest Web index with content-based relevance methods, results organized by ideas and complete user privacy. Cuil has indexed 121 billion web pages, more than Google and Yahoo combined!

The search engine goes beyond today’s search techniques of link analysis and traffic ranking to analyze the context of each page and the concepts behind each query. It then organizes similar search results into groups and sorts them by category.

Cuil gives users a richer display of results and offers organizing features, such as tabs to clarify subjects, images to identify topics and search refining suggestions to help guide users to the results they seek.

Some of the salient features of Cuil technology are:

Biggest Internet search engine - Cuil has indexed 121 billion web pages, 3x more than any other search engine

Organized results - Cuil’s magazine style layout separates results by subject and allows further search by concept or category

Different results - Unlike other search engines, Cuil ranks results by the content on each page, not its popularity

Complete privacy protection - Cuil does not keep any personally identifiable information on users or their search histories

Some of the unique highlights of Cuil are:

Drilldown - After you perform a search, you may see a panel on the right-hand side that says “Explore By Category” with a list of subjects related to your search. If you roll-over a category, it will open and show refinements related to your search. If you click on one, Cuil will direct you to this additional information. By looking at these suggestions, you may discover search data, concepts, or related areas of interest that you hadn’t expected. This is particularly useful when you are researching a subject you don’t know much about and aren’t sure how to compose the “right” query to find the information you need.

Roll-over definitions - When you pause on a subject suggested by “Explore By Category,” a definition of that term may appear. This gives you additional information to help you decide whether or not to click on that term and so save you some time.

Tabs - Cuil helps you to search by offering you other choices and suggestions. Cuil will show you “Tabs” that suggest ways to clarify your search. For example, if you search for “Jaguar,” there are a number of things you could be searching for, like Jaguar cars, Jaguar cats, a football team called the Jaguars, etc. Just click on the tab that reflects your interest and Cuil will narrow your search appropriately.

Navigation suggestion - When you type a query, sometimes you'll see a search suggestion with an icon representing a website. Click on this link and you will go directly to that website.

A ‘Cuil’ search in Google yielded 1,140,000 results, 2 days after going online. A ‘Google’ search in Cuil yielded 516,386,388 results.

So, is Cuil going to be the next Google (Google is an irresistible target, with its US $16.6 billion in 2007 revenues and market cap of $150.3 billion), time alone will tell!

Sharad can be contacted at sharad@cyber-gear.com

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