by Michelle Lentz

A couple of ex-Google folks have launched Cuil as a competitor to Google. Their goal is “to index the whole Web, to analyze deeply its pages and to organize results in a rich and helpful way that allows you to explore fully the subject of your search.”

Cuil searches a page for your keywords, then it analyzes the rest of the text on the page to give you more detailed information. On a search for my company, Write Technology, Cuil did manage to pull up some pages from my blog, but it pulled up odd pages with equally odd and unrelated images.

Cuil does have a rather nifty results display using columns and tabs, along with the pictures. It’s user friendly and easier on the eye than a long list of text. Cuil is very visual, despite initial stark home page.

Cuil is a Gaelic word meaning knowledge. The fact that it is pronounced “cool” doesn’t hurt, I’m sure. Of course, this can’t help but call to mind Teoma.com, another search engine with an Irish name. I believe Teoma was folded into Ask.

While I’m not yet sold on the content of Cuil’s results, I rather like the display format. As they index more pages and refine their algorithms, the results should improve as well. Cuil is a search engine worth some exploring.

Note: Cuil seems to have gotten a little more attention than they planned today, so they’re having a bit of trouble. I advise patience as all the hoopla dies down.

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