Cuil. What is Cuil? How do you say Cuil? If anyone noticed in the last two days, a new internet upstart is claiming to be better than Google at searching. Cuil is pronounced ‘cool’ and is anything but. Better than Google at searching? Pretty bold claim. Bold enough to make major headlines at a lot of news outlets and websites, which was probably the goal anyway, generate buzz.

Well, egg on the face my friends. The only reason Cuil’s search index is bigger is because their contextual and ranking algorithms suck. Try any kind of broad term in Cuil and you’ll typically get back pages and pages of linkbait / linkfarm sites. Found that out on the second search, first, trying my full name, and then, a targeted phrase. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Cuil is nowhere near Google in terms of search relevance. Looks like they got ahead of themselves with the announcement and now look quite foolish.

Besides, what good is a search index of 121 jillion pages if results on the first 5 pages aren’t worth jack? Statistics show that most users will try a new search after reaching the third page, if they even bother to go that far.

Cuil suhx. But for the curious… http://www.cuil.com

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