Lost in Translation

In July 2008 we were bombarded with endless hype about how this huge, more technologically advanced, Google killing search engine was being released and how it was going to give Google a run for its money… Six months later and it’s apparent that very few use Cuil, and that it’s more likely that it will suffer a slow and painful demise in the search engine world. I have looked at hundreds of thousands of visitors across all different types of sites that I have stats access to, without seeing a single visitor coming from Cuil! Is it possible that these sites are just not optimized for Cuil’s algorithm? What happened to this supposed giant? From looking at the site, it appears as though they put all their PR and money behind the launch, and then did nothing! Just go to their press page and you’ll see that they haven’t even updated their own news section since the release: http://www.cuil.com/info/news_press/ Did social media kill what could’ve been? Soon after launching Cuil crashed and then when it got back online the results were not relevant nor accurate. This not only discouraged its new users and potential userbase, but also got the bloggers and the social media world slamming the search engine. Was shoddy planning and irrelevant results the cause of this search engine’s failure? Is it possible for a new search engine to emerge and grab some of big boy’s search traffic? This is a tough question, but with well over a million advertisers and with the FTC taking longer and harder looks at Google and their business practices it would appear that Google is so big that there is no way for any new search engines to ever pop up and become popular. Actions against Google may be taken to change the current path that search is heading down, but without some drastic action I cannot see a new search engine making headway in this current search market. It is far too competitive with many features apps and just downright cool stuff being developed monthly by Google and its competitors.