Cuil - the New Search Kid on the Block

There's a new search engine on the block. CUIL went online this past Monday. (pronounced 'cool'.) It looks promising too. It claims to search more pages than Google, in fact about 3 times as much. About 120 Billion pages. Cuil even goes deep in the web. The search results are a little different, as in, they give the first paragraph to let you see if that's what you want before you click on the link. And it's in column style, like a magazine would be. You can pick from a 2-column or 3-column layout when you search. You can find that at the bottom of the page.

Features

When you search for something, on the right side of the page is a 'Explore by Category", which gives you related things to your search. By looking at these... you might discover more than you knew! If you pause at one of the suggestions in the explore category, it will tell you a definition of that suggestion before you click through. Cuil even analyzes the whole page to come up with more keyword ideas that you might not think of. Because a keyword may mean different things to different people. Cuil searches are 'sorted out' to make searching easier.

Tabs

Along the top of the page, are tabs of related searches. The tabs help you get even more specific without hunting through pages and pages of results.

Navigation suggestions

As you type in what it is you're searching for, sometimes a list will show up as possible queries, much like you get when you type in a website address in the bar of your browser. If you just type in some of what you want, it gives a complete suggestion without you having to type in the whole thing.

So, who runs Cuil?

The people who started and run the search engine are some of the brightest minds in the business. Three are ex-Google people. Four others came to cuil from different other projects. They were looking for something different... different look, different style, and came up with Cuil. They believe the internet has grown, so search engines should grow too. They believe in search popularity is ok, but it may not be just what you want. Cuil goes after what you want, rather than how popular the site is that you're looking for.

I recommend you try this new kid on the block and see what you think. I have tried a few searches myself, and I think its well worth the look-see.