Cuil.com, Cuil: New Search Engine or Not?

Reuters reports that former Google engineers have launched a new search engine, Cuil.com, poised to compete with fan favorite, Google.com. Cuil, Inc., parent company of Cuil.com, claims that the new search engine can index the web faster and more cheaply, which will give it an advantage over Google.com, who currently has the largest online index on the web. Cuil.com will focus on page context instead of traffic patterns of web users, as well as the Reuter's article puts it, the "concepts behind each user search request."

Cuil.com will try to determine what I need when I search? Will Cuil.com be able to read my mind when I type in basic search terms? Let's give this a try.

Vanity Search

The web is a large space and virtually everyone is guilty of a vanity search. To test cuil.com, I typed in my pen name, Carly Hart. I also typed Carly Hart into two other popular search engines, Google.com and Yahoo.com.

Cuil.com - Carly who? I was unable to find my Content Producer Page on Cuil.com. I went through four pages of results. I even went so far as to type in the keywords of "Carly Hart Associated Content" and still no returns. A third try produced this error: "Due to overwhelming interest, our Cuil servers are running a bit hot right now. The search engine is momentarily unavailable as we add more capacity." Google.com and Yahoo.com returned my CP page between 1-4 on first page of search returns.

Information Search

I often search for phone numbers since most listings are online and I haven't seen my phone book in years. If my child is ill, I won't spend time looking for the afore-mentioned phone book; I'd go right to my computer. I performed a search for my childrens' pediatrician via first name, last name and city, state.

Cuil.com - Dr. Aaronson who? Absolutely no results returned the first time. Tried again 10 minutes later and 3 pages show, none of which include the information I need. Google.com and Yahoo.com both displayed relevant results including address and phone number within 1-6 results on first page of search returns.

Overall

I am disappointed in Cuil.com. I does not appear to compete at all with Google or Yahoo to return information that is relevant to me. No, Cuil.com is not able to read my mind and to determine which search results matter to me. The fact that its servers were unable to handle the web traffic today and went offline for even a short time certainly does not bode well. How can you compete with the big boys when you can't even get off the porch? For me, I do not find Cuil very cool at all.