Three former Google employees have unveiled a new search engine called Cuil.com, pronounced "cool."
The site hits the web with $33 million in venture capital and a starting index of 120 billion web pages. It also boasts three former Google staff members among its top ranks, including VP of Engineering Anna Patterson, co-founder Russell Power and Vice President of Product Louis Monier.
The startup has assumed an aggressive posture, claiming that its 120 billion-page index is triple the size of Google's – a claim that's impossible to verify since Google stopped publicizing the size of its index almost three years ago.
Also, Google spokesperson Katie Watson said that her company's index remains the largest.
But that's not Cuil's only professed advantage. The Cuil team says that their technology lets them catalog more of the Internet using far fewer computers than Google.
For adult industry professionals, Cuil presents an intriguing alternative. First, the site doesn't retain any information about users' search activity, which Google does.
Second, Cuil provides users with a safe-search filter that, when enabled, blocks any adult content.
But the biggest contrast between Google and Cuil is seen by simply using it. As opposed to Google's austere lists of search results, Cuil presents its listings in three columns, with pictures and a full paragraph of descriptive text. Also displayed among the search results is a module that offers subcategories for the search term.
So how well does Cuil search the Internet?
Most leading tech blogs have been testing Cuil against Google with the verdict so far being in Google's favor.
• TechCrunch reported that Google is so far returning more results that are more relevant.
• The Industry Standard noted that Cuil is not handling location-based searches very well.
• ReadWriteWeb criticized Cuil based on some unusual results they received for related links.
A quick test of Cuil suggested that the site should acquire more servers – searches for simple terms took a minute to load. In addition results for some general adult industry terms – porn, sex, etc. – returned markedly different results than Google. If Cuil were to become a major competitor to Google, industry experts in search-engine optimization would have a whole new problem to solve.