NewsDude
07-29-2008, 05:30 PM
The latest search war is being touted as a David and Goliath battle. In modern-day terms, that means Cuil versus Google.
Cuil, pronounced "cool," on Monday launched a new search-engine platform that claims to combine the largest Web index with content-based relevance, results organized by ideas, and complete user privacy. Cuil said it has indexed 120 billion Web pages, three times more than any other search engine.
What gives this classic David and Goliath story an interesting twist is that several former Google engineers are behind Cuil. Co-led by COO Anna Patterson, best known for her indexing work at Google, Cuil is looking to win the hearts of searchers with what it says is a better way to scour the Web's trillion-plus pages.
A 'Realistic Attitude'
Beyond its breadth of search, Cuil's "cool" features include organized results. Cuil uses a magazine-style layout that separates results by subject and allows further searches by concept or category. Unlike other search engines, Cuil ranks results by the content on each page, not its popularity. Cuil also boasts "complete privacy protection" since it does not keep any personally identifiable information on users or their search histories.
Patterson knows how to build a search engine. She was the architect of Google's large search index and also led a Web page-ranking team. She was there in the early days, which means she understands that a search giant isn't built in a day, or even a year. It's going to take at least that long to determine if Cuil could possibly be a Google contender, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"What impressed me most in my meeting with Cuil was Patterson's attitude. Beyond her background and her team, she had a very realistic attitude about the search marketplace," Sterling said. "She recalled Google's traffic growth in...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61023)
Cuil, pronounced "cool," on Monday launched a new search-engine platform that claims to combine the largest Web index with content-based relevance, results organized by ideas, and complete user privacy. Cuil said it has indexed 120 billion Web pages, three times more than any other search engine.
What gives this classic David and Goliath story an interesting twist is that several former Google engineers are behind Cuil. Co-led by COO Anna Patterson, best known for her indexing work at Google, Cuil is looking to win the hearts of searchers with what it says is a better way to scour the Web's trillion-plus pages.
A 'Realistic Attitude'
Beyond its breadth of search, Cuil's "cool" features include organized results. Cuil uses a magazine-style layout that separates results by subject and allows further searches by concept or category. Unlike other search engines, Cuil ranks results by the content on each page, not its popularity. Cuil also boasts "complete privacy protection" since it does not keep any personally identifiable information on users or their search histories.
Patterson knows how to build a search engine. She was the architect of Google's large search index and also led a Web page-ranking team. She was there in the early days, which means she understands that a search giant isn't built in a day, or even a year. It's going to take at least that long to determine if Cuil could possibly be a Google contender, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"What impressed me most in my meeting with Cuil was Patterson's attitude. Beyond her background and her team, she had a very realistic attitude about the search marketplace," Sterling said. "She recalled Google's traffic growth in...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61023)