Cuil, the Internet's newest Search Engine appears to be taking a bit of a battering as everyone and his dog takes a shufty at what has been described as 'new technology that can change the competitive dynamics of the Web search market'. What that means is that some clever ex-Google employees have developed what they claim to be a more efficient Search Engine than Google, capable of indexing faster and more cheaply, a far larger portion of the Web than the world's number one. Reuters said: "The would-be Google rival says its service goes beyond prevailing search techniques that focus on Web links and audience traffic patterns and instead analyzes the context of each page and the concepts behind each user search request." If this is true it's a significant difference to Google and as anyone involved in optimising web pages (SEO) can tell you, it's the concept of 'relevance' based on quantity of links that often proves the most difficult to address, and possibly the reason why results are often filled with affiliate-driven 'price comparison' sites. Maybe Cuil will tip the balance back toward actual content and away from the SEO-merchants? Whatever the outcome I'll watch this with as much interest as I watched Google when it launched, taking on the then dominant Alta Vista. Go and take a look, but be prepared to see the following message (at least until they get more servers put in): "We’ll be back soon... 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. Thanks for your patience."
