Multimedia Agency

The Internet has closed the gap between people around the world and drew information within everybody’s reach. As they say, we are now living in what they refer as the Information Age and paved the way for new words such as “techie” and “blogs”. Likewise, some words received alternations in their meanings and became the new set of technological jargons; “yahoo” for example no longer pertains to what cowboys yell, nor is “traffic” when we talk about sites and “google” when we are looking for something in the World Wide Web.

Search engines

Search engines are Internet tools that users make use of to look for information from various websites and links. At present, there are many search engines but Google and Yahoo top them all. However, there is a newly launched search engine called Cuil (pronounced like the word “cool), developed and managed by think tanks from IBM and Google.

Cuil’s Founders

The CEO and one of the founders Tom Costello was a graduate of Stanford University and even taught in the institution for a couple of years. Before Cuil, Costello developed another search engine, named Xift in 1999. Joining Costello are Anna Patterson and Russell Power who worked for Google before establishing their company. The founders used the Irish word “Cuil” which according to Cuil’s homepage is “an old Irish word for knowledge.”

Cuil as a search engine

Cuil takes pride that Cuil in terms of web pages has “three times as many as Google and ten times as Microsoft”. Likewise, Cuil is more particular with keyword-enriched articles with relevant contents in ranking web pages rather than merely basing popularity; though Cuil still regard popularity as an important factor in ranking web pages.

Cuil also has its own features that make it different and unique from the other search engines like Google and Yahoo. The company’s website enumerates three distinct features of Cuil; drill down, roll-over definition and tabs.

Drill down

When you are searching in Cuil, it will not only give you results but a list of categories displayed on the right panel under the name of “Explore By Category”. Cuil wants to refine your searches by giving you more information that might be very useful for your research.

Roll-over definition

This feature sets Cuil apart from Google and Yahoo search engines; it will give a very short definition of the items listed under “Explore By Category”. According to the company this feature will et its users save time since you will know if you should click or not that particular subject based on the definition given.

Tabs

As mentioned, Cuil doesn’t have the “Advance Search” options instead; it has Tabs that specify your particular search. For example, if you are going to search for “toddlers”, the Tabs will give you “activities for toddlers”, “babies and toddlers” and many more. It’s up to you if you want to click on those pages.

Testing Cuil

If you try to search by using Cuil, the striking difference that you will see is the short introduction that they provide along with thumbnails. This feature is really good since you as a user have a little idea of what that particular site or web page is all about. Unlike Google and Yahoo in which the introduction is just a matter of one or two sentences, Cuil really let its users know what site they are about to enter.

Cuil also has their preference feature that will not show pornographic sites from the results of your searches. This is great for families who want to safeguard their family’s viewing. On the other hand, it is hard if you misspell a particular topic unlike in Yahoo and Goggle where they will give you suggestions. Cuil will just prompt you with zero results from that particular search.

To end up, Cuil is a newly launched search engine that you as an intelligent user should try and make use to the maximum. It has several useful features that may suit your searching style.

Tags: Cuil, Google, News, SEO

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