The Future Cuil Search Engine

Today I posted an article in Web Developers talking about Cuil and its apparent failure to capture the end user. In response, I immediately heard back from Cuil’s Brad Kellett. He immediately expressed his desire to make sure we know that they are working feverishly to make Cuil the best search engine that it can possibly be. And you know something, I believe him.

In the past, I have seen companies that have had issues finding their groove pull back from the edge of the virtual cliff only to then go on and succeed beyond anyone’s greatest expectations. So while we will have to wait and see what Cuil is able to come up with to improve their search abilities, I would ask them to remember the following.

No single search algorithm is going to be a fix. To battle Google, you will be tackling a brand war, revenue maker for web masters in addition to the fact that as Brad pointed out, Google has had a ten year head start. The one thing I would remind Brad of however is while I agree with him that Google has a time in business advantage, without a CLEAR, defining reason to switch, there is no reason to. I am saying this as I am hoping he hears my point. Give me, as a user, a reason to care. Google did in its debut, can Cuil?

Can Cuil provide new, unproven websites that are not able to get immediate link backs immediate eyeballs without also becoming a means of black hat SEO? Figure this out while still being relevant, you will find that Cuil is suddenly VERY well received. But again, it will take some human element to make this work. It is highly unlikely that algorithms alone can do it.