Cuil Search Engine Tries To Be "Cool"

This is like a weird Oedipus Rex complex to me. Some former Googlers decided to run off and make their own search engine and call it Cuil (supposedly pronounced Cool... oh, so very Web 2.0... all it's missing is a random "r"). Also, supposedly, it indexes way more sites that Google and uses a different criteria set that the creators have deemed better than Google's (of course they aren't going to say it's just OK).

All that aside, it's a smooth looking search engine. The front page shows the same simplistic design mind-set that Google uses for everything, except Cuil is a black background not white. That's wicked different! The results page lists things in columns with a short blurb and a picture of the header for the page, making it look more like an RSS reader than a search engine, but I kind of like that aesthetic.

As a trial, I popped in "Gay Tech Ads" into Google and Cuil. To be fair, Cuil returned some things I had never heard of, but Google still fetched the info I was looking for in general. Is that a result of my regular use of Google and learning how to use it's search criteria, or a result of Cuil's search criteria not being up to snuff? Actually, I think neither. Although I think they want to tackle the giant that is Google, it looks like Cuil falls more in the Alternative Search Engine zone quite nicely.

[via: Gizmodo]