Cuil, the search engine that launched to great hype last year and seems to have disappeared since then, announced changes to its design, content, and backend today.

When Cuil launched last summer, the site’s design was one of its primary distinguishing features — it used a three-column layout that gave equal weight to a variety of results. After the new changes, there are still three columns, but the primary results take up two columns at the top of the page:

It’s still a unique design where search engines are concerned, but to be frank, it looks almost like a news/magazine-style blog now. And as you can see from the search above for “buy books” that doesn’t include Amazon.com in the results, it still has some relevancy issues.

Cuil says new content from MapQuest and Hulu is now included in the search results, and they’ve made some behind-the-scenes tweaks to improve speed.

Related Topics: Search Engines: Cuil

About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land's Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee