Cuil, a new search engine launched today by ex-Googlers certainly got a lot of media hype: front page billing on CNN.com and HuffPo. So I took a look....
First impression:
1. The black screen homepage doesn't look too inviting. Then search results come back at you with a white background. That color transition isn't easy on the eyes.
2. Content wise, Cuil seems competent with popular search terms, although it did hiccup because of the deluge of hits it received today. I got a few goose-eggs when I cuiled my name and again when I searched "highspeed ADC" earlier in the day, although it seems to be behaving now. Cuiling "The Smooth DJ" didn't return my website, or much anything related to music or DJing, but strange pictures of women's underwear. Compare that to Googling the same thing.
3. It's hard to discern ranking of search results. The results page is arranged in columns with no number pairing. After nearly a decade of Googling, this feels counter-intuitive.
