The BBC reported this morning that a small group of former employees at Google have gone their own way and have created a search engine they hope will rival Google, called Cuil (pronounced 'cool'), claiming that it does a better job of indexing pages and information.
This hasn't been the first time that a new search engine has been released to out-perform Google, but none have made it.
Taking a look at Cuil, the site design is interesting. The user can select dynamically from a two or three column layout for results, and relevant results are displayed on the right hand side within an accordion box. The actual search front page is bland. Trying to draw on Google's simplicity and clean site, the page doesn't quite manage it. It's an interesting engine to use though, and it would be useful to use if only for the sake of trying something different.
Will people really move away from Google to use this service though? I personally doubt it. Google are just too big a brand now. Even if search services offered by other suppliers were superior in comparison, Google has the monopoly over the online tools marketplace. Integration of their calendars, documents, analytics services (plus pretty much everything else they have) will, I think, solidify their position as the web tool of choice.
I'm not bigging up Google. Why should I? But in the current climate and society we live in, partially run by corporations and conglomerates, would people trust a big name brand they know, or a small name newbie?
I wish Cuil every success, and if nothing else, it's a fantastic endeavour. And by the looks of things, they will also be aiming to publish general stats relating to searches they have provided, unlike Google, who keep their cards extremely close to their chests, but put it this way... Microsoft haven't managed to take Google in the battle yet, so will this 'indie' company be able to manage it?