[deleted]
Cuil Goes Down for Good
11–20 of 93 posts
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#12The only lasting legacy of Cuil may be its use in expressing orders of abstraction away from normalcy:
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#13$33m sounds like a lot to burn through to get to the gut wrenching point of being down to last pennies. But for those saying "no one can take on Google" and "search isn't an interesting space any more", remember Google got told the same things about the incumbents and "the portals" when it started. There is always a better way out there. Someone just hasn't found it yet. Chances are low that Google will still dominat…
Yes, people can, and should, take on Google.
At the same time, I happened to be on eBay today and noticed that I've been an eBay member for just over 10 years. Why is it that we haven't found a better way to run auctions online? Most people still list and participate in online auctions almost exactly the same way they did 10 years ago.
I do agree that the pace of innovation is increasing, so maybe 10 years starting from 2010 is the same as, say, 20 years starting from the year 2000.
But I think chances are high that Google will dominate search in 10 years. If someone discovered a better way (and there are many, they just haven't caught on yet) they would just buy 'em out, right? ;) Or maybe Bing will win. But then it's Microsoft winning, and Microsoft is older than me.
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#14Strange how an unfunded startup with a single founder (DuckDuckGo) is getting better results than a $30million backed one comprised of a bunch of ex-Googlers.
That's because cuil was building a search engine from scratch rather than relying on bing's/yahoo's index to do the underlying scoring. Maybe they shouldn't have started from scratch, but they were certainly tackling a much harder problem (maybe not the right one.)
I've heard through the grapevine that they were able to index and serve 100 billion documents on 100 machines, which is a pretty impressive technical accomplishment if true. I'm surprised they weren't acquired for that. It's unfortunate that their search quality wasn't up to snuff yet.
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bing seems to be doing a pretty good job. With google's privacy snafu's and other mishaps, I could see them getting upset within 5 years.
Bing is the default search in IE, it had a significant chunk of the market with Live Search previously and started off with a $100 million dollar advertising blitz. Add to that the number and talent of the employees working on it and you have something no startup could hope to replicate.
The grandparent wasn't talking about startups, though:
i'm not sure if a company will ever be able to take on Google in search directly
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#16I'm sorry to say it but they never stood a chance, i'm not sure if a company will ever be able to take on Google in search directly.
Anybody that filters out the content generators like ehow, ask.com, demandstudios, etc will get an immediate nod from me. Wait.. doesn't DDG Do this? (honestly, I don't know)
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#17Strange how an unfunded startup with a single founder (DuckDuckGo) is getting better results than a $30million backed one comprised of a bunch of ex-Googlers.
That's because cuil was building a search engine from scratch rather than relying on bing's/yahoo's index to do the underlying scoring. Maybe they shouldn't have started from scratch, but they were certainly tackling a much harder problem (maybe not the right one.) I've heard through the grapevine that they were able to index and serve 100 billion documents on 100 machines, which is a pretty impressive technical acco…
"That's because cuil was building a search engine from scratch rather than relying on bing's/yahoo's index to do the underlying scoring."
I've heard this in other discussions of DuckDuckGo here, and I don't understand why bing/yahoo allow a potential competitor free access to data that is so important to their search businesses. What's in it for Yahoo/Microsoft? Or is DDG paying for the privilege?
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's because cuil was building a search engine from scratch rather than relying on bing's/yahoo's index to do the underlying scoring. Maybe they shouldn't have started from scratch, but they were certainly tackling a much harder problem (maybe not the right one.) I've heard through the grapevine that they were able to index and serve 100 billion documents on 100 machines, which is a pretty impressive technical acco…
"That's because cuil was building a search engine from scratch rather than relying on bing's/yahoo's index to do the underlying scoring." I've heard this in other discussions of DuckDuckGo here, and I don't understand why bing/yahoo allow a potential competitor free access to data that is so important to their search businesses. What's in it for Yahoo/Microsoft? Or is DDG paying for the privilege?
It's probably the same reason google allows free app engine accounts. If someone builds something cool, it's easy to integrate upon acquisition.
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#19Strange how an unfunded startup with a single founder (DuckDuckGo) is getting better results than a $30million backed one comprised of a bunch of ex-Googlers.
IMHO DDG's success stems from the fact that yegg listens to the users, is small yet big, and addresses a niche market - the one that demands quality results and settles for nothing less.
By being small DDG can address issues that others will not even think or bother thinking about i.e. enhanced privacy controls, TOR utilization etc.
I believe that Cull was a dream that went south. Unfortunately that dream had a hefty bill ($33m).
Strangely enough I visited that site once before and could not put a name to a site until I saw a screenshot of it.
Re: Cuil Goes Down for Good
#20Strange how an unfunded startup with a single founder (DuckDuckGo) is getting better results than a $30million backed one comprised of a bunch of ex-Googlers.
Alexa says cuil and ddg are about the same. (I know alexa sucks etc etc)