Cuil: just another search engine?

There’s a new search engine on the block.

So what’s so different about this one you might ask?

Cuil (Irish for knowledge) calls itself the worlds biggest search engine – claiming to index three times as many pages as Google.

• The first thing that struck me was the results display. In a typical Google type search the results are all presented in a linear format – they’re in a list from 1-10 and you scroll down the page to see more. Cuil shows you a page of screenshots which you can browse and choose the one that is most relevant to you.

Now visual search is the way many of the search companies are going and a lot of them are trying out this model. (Check out Ask Binoculars for example). Visual results just means you get a look at a page before clicking into it – theoretically saving you time.

But on the day I did my searching none of my results were particularly relevant. When I went back to good old Google (which according to Cuil hasn’t moved on at all in fifteen years) – bingo – I found what I needed.

• Cuil are hot on privacy promises too, something which is becoming more and more of an issue as web searchers grow concerned about the amount of information gathered during a search. So it’s always good to see this.

• Other good features include suggested terms to expand or narrow your search.

My verdict? Cuil has great potential, so do a couple of searches on it yourself and give it a go. But it has loads of bugs to iron out and maybe should have been launched in Beta in the first place. We’ll keep an eye on it – it’s always great to see something new and different in search!

Have you tried it? What did you think?

New Journals: Environment and Planning

DCU Library now has access to Environment and Planning, a collection of four urban and regional planning journals. They focus on everything from the environment and nature through planning and policy to theory and design.

DCU’s access to Environment and planning is funded by IReL.