After reflecting upon just what a search engine like Cuil would mean for someone in an SEO role or otherwise involved in search. I’ve had a few thoughts run through my mind, some of which are worth discussion.
First of all, being ranked #1 would mean something completely different. If you actually look at a search results page on Cuil, you’ll see that items are organized very differently than traditional engines. There’s no 1-10 listing but rather a grouping of results, left to right, top to bottom. My eye in particular is drawn to the top, centre result. What about yours? What about someone who’s used to reading Hebrew (which reads right to left)?
The end result is that we’d likely end up with interesting heat graphs for these search results depending on what group is studied. That would provide some room for catering particular content to rank lower on purpose to hit a hot spot for a particular demographic.
Secondly, we would need to start optimizing for keywords again. Quite frankly, I don’t think anyone misses the days of keyword stuffing. A return to this would not only be unpleasant for webmasters, but would also create a scenario where people could “steal” good pages again. While that’s a pretty bleak looking picture, we probably shouldn’t forget that a lot of time has gone by and the individuals involved in this project have a lot of experience in this field. They either already have or will likely come up with a far more clever way of dealing with the old problems.
Ultimately all of this would come down to Cuil being successful. So far the verdict isn’t in their favour from what I’ve been reading around the net. The search results just aren’t any good. Cuil definitely has the scent of a flash in the pan to my nose… As with most things though, only time will tell.
Debtor // Aug 5, 2008 at 11:41 am
Interestingly enough I had a look a Cuil the other day and was far from impressed.
I’m not sure what their ranking methods are but they’re definately not keyword related. I did some searches for sites only I have keywords for and they appeared buried. I think Cuil looks more popularity based than keyword based but they claim they are looking at keywords. I dunno, didn’t look good.
Andrew - Attorney in Fredericksburg // Aug 5, 2008 at 10:01 pm
The point about being #1 is right on. I actually feel overwhelmed by Cuil. I don’t know where to look!
You’re right that different people will look first in different places. I wonder where the most popular place is….
Ling // Aug 7, 2008 at 11:27 am
Only things I want in a a search engine are simplicity and ease of use, fast output and relevant results. If you have this, you don’t really need anything else. The more bells and whistles you add, the more difficult it gets.
Melissa // Aug 10, 2008 at 1:35 am
Cuil is a really cute but thats about it.
earn online // Aug 10, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Good article. Cuil is nice, but its not “Google Killer”, not to mention, that my site doesn’t even rank well for its own name (last I checked), whats up with that!
buying penny stock // Aug 11, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I agree with Andrew, I dont know where to look with Cuil and it does feel overwhelming and a bit confusing. I dont want to bad mouth it or jump on any bandwagons regarding it, but I went there searched around a bit and it just is what it is. I feel that if they dont cater to bloggers and social sites they will be hurting their advertising potential in a big way. Did anyone else read that they will be catering more to corporate sites? This may explain why your searches for your blogs and/or keyword searches for sites/blogs that you know are not showing up.
Lotus Notes // Aug 12, 2008 at 2:30 am
Good article. Cuil is nice,I agree with Andrew, I dont know where to look with Cuil and it does feel overwhelming and a bit confusing. I dont want to bad mouth it or jump on any bandwagons regarding it, but I went there searched around a bit and it just is what it is.You’re right that different people will look first in different places.I wonder where the most popular place is….
entrepreneur blog // Aug 12, 2008 at 3:46 am
I am less than impressed with Cuil. It has a very different look and a very different “feel” to it. Personally I just didn’t like it, and I am not even sure why I didn’t like it.
I don’t see it being a threat to Google any time soon.
If the site does gain some traction I am sure somebody will do an eye map for it to find out where the best position is.
On a good note, I searched for one of my sites that Google currently has sandboxed and it showed up in Cuil – so they get kudos for that. LOL
bluetooth // Aug 12, 2008 at 3:48 am
Yes I agree that Cuil is very differently than traditional search engines. Cuil being successful and well structured makes it certainly a SEO friendly engine.
Ramya // Aug 12, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Cuil is a good content based search engine. cuil will develop in future. thanks.
Miami Cosmetic Dentist // Aug 13, 2008 at 5:43 am
Cuil has to grab a share of the search engine market before webmasters pay any attention to it .
ritchie // Aug 13, 2008 at 6:29 am
I’m running mostly German websites/blog, and it’s interesting that Cuil exclusively focusses on the English language for now. The semantic grouping function for example is highly depending on the language used – Cuil doesn’t work at all for non-English sites. But generally I agree with your article – afaik a little variation in techniques is going to make SEO a lot more interesting as opposed to the current situation “all against G”.
Lenen // Aug 13, 2008 at 7:40 am
Well, they make claims that they have more pages/websites indexed than any other search engine but when you search for certain keywords many websites are still missing. Half of my sites, operating in different niches, are still not indexed in Cuil.
Wireless Hidden Cameras // Aug 13, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Like most commentators, I too thought Cuil’s interface was just too busy. I hated reading left to right, top to bottom with no idea where I should focus my attention on. I did not like the pictures mixed with text.
Yeah, it would have been nice to break the monopoly of Google with an alternative but it isn’t Cuil.
Um, it might be Google itself with it’s new experimental interface. Check out http://www.google.com/experimental/
Let the games begin trying to rank yourself for the different views.
techie // Aug 16, 2008 at 12:54 am
Yes as mentioned above, cuil looks for popularity instead of keyword search. I guess each search engine has has its own behavior, that’s what makes it “unique” from other ones.
denver // Aug 17, 2008 at 9:10 am
I just checked cuil.but i found that i cannot find a lot of sites with my keywords like google.very odd
Toronto movers // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Cuil is a nice alternative it dose bring in some good quality sites from their search. But a lot of the sites I’ve seo and are ranking top 5 on google don’t even show up on cuil ;/
anirban roy // Aug 29, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Cuil is no alternative.
the results are shown in such a jumbled way that it may need another search engine to search a result from it!
Gossip // Aug 30, 2008 at 1:38 am
I have tried to use Cuil, but result seems very inaccurate, so never use that again!
call of duty 5 // Aug 31, 2008 at 12:29 pm
thanks great read, Also your site looks excellent, ive tried my hand at design but without luck.
EliteVillain // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:44 am
I kinda think that the Cuil is not accurate too thats why I had stop using it too…
Rose // Sep 5, 2008 at 4:16 am
Thank you for really good article which make me have to check how is the work of Cuil engine again, since the first day of release it didn’t catch my attention at all. Cuil is till too far from Google. I agree with anirban roy, “The results are shown in such a jumbled way that it may need another search engine to search a result from it!”
Incognito Mode // Sep 8, 2008 at 10:12 pm
good post. i sure hope cuil doesn’t take off. it’s hard enough trying to keep up with google. don’t really want to worry about optimizing for another search engine. groan…
Jordans // Sep 12, 2008 at 12:42 am
“Quite frankly, I don’t think anyone misses the days of keyword stuffing.”
tell me about it lol.
Getting Hit on // Sep 13, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I’ve checked out Cuil and I didn’t really think it was that cool. My page has not been indexed yet.
femalebrains // Sep 19, 2008 at 7:43 am
Cuil just gives nonsense search results. The videos they link to are totally wrong results. 2nd time I tested it, still no good.
Rory Creare // Feb 13, 2009 at 6:52 am
When I first went on Cuil, I thought it looked very sexy. Being in the web design industry myself I was very impressed with the aesthetics. The minimal black search page is a web designers dream, the absolute flip reverse of google. However after using it for a while, I found the usability was poor. Sites weren’t loading or coming up when I knew they were online. Good luck Cuil, but competing with the Google monster will be a mean feat…
Free & Open Source // Mar 22, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I remember all the hype about cuil.com when it first came out and frankly, I was very very disappointed with it. I personally very much prefer the traditional results listings like on Google.