Just a day back, CUIL was launched. And from the day one, every one started raising questions, whether it can be a Google Killer or not. So, I decided to use CUIL for one full day, instead of Google.com, just to figure out whether CUIL is worth the hype or not, and figured out that somehow its not a good idea to switch to CUIL. Well, there are a lot of reasons for that. But before that, lets just list out why it is getting so much of hype.

• The very good thing about this search engine I found is its massive index of nearly 120 billion pages, compared to 40 billion pages on Google.
• It is developed by former Google employees, making sure that the indexing methods used by google are further improvised and used here.
• It not only search for the results, but shows them in a nice format along with a thumbnail too. Also, it displays further options to find relevant searches.
• It indexes the pages based on the contents and not on the page ranking system, which ensures that you find related information, much easily.
• It displays possible search options in a dropdown box, as you type in the search box.
• It loads faster than google. It may be because of low traffic as compared to google, but still its a good thing. Also, animations are crisp, smooth, and even with those animations, page doesn’t seems too flashy. Really nice graphics.

Enough of praise of CUIL, as a potential google killer. Lets just face it now. The search engine is not worth the hype, as I found. Atleast I am not switching to CUIL permanently, for next few months. May be it will be just another search engine, like Powerset or Wisenut, which also tried to make a dent in Google’s market share, but miserably failed. Obviously, I have got a proof for the same, as I have used it for one day. Listing out my findings below.

• It is not google. Sorry, for being so mean. But, I never really use term “search” in context of internet. It is by default Google. For so many years, everyone is using Google as their favorite search engine. It is not easy to get such a big fan base easily.
• Google provides other services, based on their own search index, like page ranking, adsense etc. Adsense won’t work on basis of CUIL or other search index.
• You can search just web pages in CUIL. To search for images, news, blogs, or using advanced search, I had to switch back to google. CUIL does not support using “filetype:” keyword while searching for a PDF file.
• “Did you mean: jitendra garg“. I missed this auto spell check in CUIL. You have to start playing scrabbles to improve your spellings before using CUIL.
• Where is the option to “Search pages from India”. I am not interested in all results but just from Indian sites, but still CUIL displays me all the results for my search query. Option to search regional pages is missing. One more negative point for CUIL.
• How many times, do you have used Google to check the current dollar prices in INR, or to calculate a mathematical equation, or to know the current time or temperature of the city? I use these features a lot. It helps saving you a lot of time, looking for icon of Calculator, or Weather gadget, in your Vista sidebar. But sadly, this feature is also missing from so-hyped CUIL.
• Most of the sites, uses google page rank and Alexa rating to determine your page’s importance on internet. So sad, they have to write their algorithm once again. Clearly, not a feasible option.
• Advertisers prefer google. They have a reason for it after all.
• Google is one stop solution to most of your needs. Calculator, maps, weather information, foreign exchange, image search, and lot of such features, integrated with search, provides a richer experience. While, CUIL just boasts of a massive index for web pages, and nothing else.

Finally after one day of using CUIL, and missing google, I feel a bit too relaxed, as I am back to Google. Any search engine trying to call itself a Google killer, should atleast think again. After powerset, wisenut, a9.com, and now CUIL, it seems that for the next few years, Google have to wait for the true contender. May be MS-Yahoo merger can result in a better alternative of our most beloved search engine. Till then, happy googling.

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