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Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

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Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#102

It seems to be putting incorrect pictures with names. I did a simple search of "Hacker News" and Sam Odio came up on the first search page. I thought, cool, Cuil managed to put his picture right next to his Hacker News profile. But then I clicked through to his blog and unless he's really changed over time, I think they got the picture wrong :) Take a look: http://billkatz-test.appspot.com/static/images/cuil.png

I laughed. My name came up with some of my online profiles, but with a photo of some British boy band singer....

Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#103
post #88
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well one of the things about Google that I really like is that they really make a lot of effort to make sure that the #1 result is the page you actually want. It's part of the whole 'Feeling Lucky' thing. I'd rather not have to read through the entire search results page to figure out which one is the most relevant.. that's the search engine's job! In other words, don't make me think. :)

How much do you think: input the right keywords, get results in the top 1,2,3, has to do with the feedback system of using google over the past few years? I agree on the don't make me think part.

You could be right, perhaps I've been using Google so much that I've become accustomed to it.

But I still think that all search engines should make a lot of effort to ensure that the #1 result is the best result.

I'd rather spend less time looking through search results if possible.

Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#104
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I search for python pretty regularly on Google. My recent, logged-in, searches for 'python gecko' resulted in a bunch of reptile sellers.

I search for programming-related things, and all but two results (both videos) for "python gecko" are about Mozilla bindings for Python. Basically, I am not upset that Google profiles me. I would get upset when my profile is admissible as evidence against me in court, but that's not up to Google. Let's not make searching the web difficult because our legal system is fucked up. Let's fix the legal system.

I think we're probably getting the same page - I get:

* YouTube - Leopard gecko and royal python eat mice!!

* FS: 2 captive-born Mali Uromastyx - via auction (gargoyle python gecko boa) Reptiles. ...

before I get:

* Re: [pyxpcom] Python web crawler using Gecko :: ASPN Mail Archive ...

I'd have thought, given my history, the reptile versions would come later.

Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#105
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now it's not responding at all. Don't sell your Google stock just yet.

They did just launch. I'm sure they still have a few bugs to work out.

"Release early, release often." Rarely balanced properly for potentially high-demand, high-load applications, even if just in spikes.

Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#107
I went to post cuil's comment policy on Edward Tufte's bulletin board thread "Not spying on users should be a feature: The keep-it-and-lose-it hypothesis". Searching ET's site in situ is painful, but Google is pretty good at finding Ask ET threads, so I thought I'd try cuil. Cuil didn't find the thread at all with "Edward Tufte Not spying feature", which has got to be unique.

Also, didn't the google blog recently mention they had passed the trillion mark?

Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#108

It seems to me that a way to potentially creep up on google would be to make a specialist search engine. Some topic area that google is not so useful for searching on. Make a search system that 'understands' the domain in question, allowing it to index and search it really effectively. As a random example, say, a movies search engine. If it could be consistently more useful than google for finding out information abo…

Well isn't that the point of Yahoo BOSS? To enable people to make their own vertical web search engines?

Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#109
post #26

Trying to like this but failing. It didn't get even decent results for any of the queries I fed it. I wonder if competing head-on with Google is a wise strategy. It's really hard to beat them without years of effort, and until then no one wants to use your site. There must be some other way.

Same for me. I tried two test queries and had none of the results that I wanted to see (which I do see on Google).

My name gets 2,290 hits on Google and 0 on Cuil, and many of those 2,290 are on some of the biggest domains on the Web. I'm having trouble believing Cuil's claim of indexing more pages.

Re: Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search

#110
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I've seen some Google ads that were a bit too targeted lately -- related to stuff that I searched for last week -- and it is getting spooky. I'd like to have a decent alternative. Maybe I should just get used to Yahoo, but this looks hipper, no? That being said, they haven't indexed my site yet. Amateurs!

what I find shady is that its against the law to spoof your competitors domain name, but google will allow you to display ads for when people search for your competitor. thats a little underhanded if you ask me

I believe you can ask them to remove ads on particular terms, if you hold a trademark on them. I recall reading about a lawsuit that covered that issue several years ago, and I think Google lost. But I could be imagining legal precedents again.
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