Cuil, pronounced “cool,” went live yesterday to mixed reviews.  Cuil is a brand new search engine boasting a larger index than any other search site out there.  It remains to be seen whether or not it will become a viable alternative to the all-powerful Google, but so far what it does offer is a fresh, snappy user interface focused on providing you with more information about the results before you click through to what you were looking for.  Instead of the usual long list of links and one-sentence descriptions, Cuil presents search results to you in a three column grid-like page.  Each result has a small paragraph of content and usually a thumbnail from the site.  Depending on how broad or narrow your search topic is, there is also a row of alternate searches above your results, and an ‘Explore by Category’ area with even more suggested topics.

the cuil search page

After performing several searchs on pretty specific topics and people, it seems as if the actual search results are not nearly as accurate as Google; but it is still in its infancy, so hopefully things will shake out soon.  Cuil is headed up several former Google employees and one former IBM employee.  With those types of people behind it, maybe it can rise above some of the other heads in the search engine crowd.  Head on over and let us know what you think.