Googler Killer, Cuil, which launched in June 2008 and went defunct in September 2010, have had their patent applications acquired by Google. Bill Slawski spotted the transfer of ownership of these patent applications this morning. The patents transfer to Google from Cuil include 20090240672, 20090240685, 20090241044, 20090241018, 20090241058, 20090241065 and 20090241066. This is not all that surprising, being that one of the co-founders, Anna Patterson joined Google the same month Cuil went offline. Related Stories: Cuil Goes Offline, Future Not So Cool Anna Patterson, Cuil Found [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Business Issues | Google: Patents | Search Engines: Cuil

TechCrunch reports Anna Patterson has updated her LinkedIn profile to say she is now back at Google. Anna left Google to launch a 'Googler killer' named Cuil. Cuil, a new search engine, had a ton of hype around it and had a lot of smart people working there, including Anna. A few months ago Cuil went offline after not being able to raise more funding and has remained offline since. Anna appears to now be a Director of Google Research at Google. Prior, she worked at Google since 2004 as the architect of Google’s large search index, TeraGoogle, that launched in early 2006 and technica [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Employees | Search Engines: Cuil

Thursday night, Cuil, the Google killer, went offline. The first report I've seen about this was Friday afternoon at TechCrunch, it is like no one noticed for several hours. TechCrunch reports Cuil went down after last minute acquisition talks failed. They said "Cuil was in the final stages of an acquisition as of last Wednesday, and everything was in place except the final signatures. Then the deal fell apart for some reason." The day after, Thursday, employees were reportedly told to pack up and then later on in that day the servers went offline. It is believed the service may go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil

At the beginning of Google's "Searchology" event in early 2007 original Google employee Craig Silverstein opined, "If Google had started a year or two earlier, it wouldn't have worked." That's because prior to that time (1998) the internet wasn't yet large enough to require Google or enable people to see the value of its approach. As sites and pages multiplied exponentially Google became an increasingly necessary tool. We're all familiar with the story. Now Google controls a majority of search traffic in most countries around the world. It has become a seemingly unstoppable force. The in [...]

Related Topics: Blekko | Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Web Search | Search Engines: Cuil | Search Engines: Custom Search Engines | Search Engines: Open Directory Project | Search Engines: Powerset | Search Engines: Social Search Engines | Search Features: General | Top News

Make some space on the real-time search bandwagon for Cuil, which has just added real-time listings to its search results page. As Mashable points out, Cuil seems to be following OneRiot's lead in that its real-time results are more about the links people are sharing online rather than the actual tweets and conversations. The interface is nice with the ability to scroll horizontally through several results, but there's no indication where the results are coming from (is this just a Twitter crawl/API pull?) and nothing to explain what the "Hotness" bar is and how it relates to other r [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil

Cuil has announced an interesting new map-based tool called Maplines. On some queries, the Mapline shows in the right column of Cuil's search results above the Timeline feature. What's a Mapline. Here's Cuil's explanation: "Just as our Timelines show a concept across time, our Maplines show a concept across a map." It's an interesting idea, but seems to be poorly executed. The Mapline on a search for John Legend, for example, shows a random assortment of places that the singer has performed in the past -- certainly not a complete list. The Mapline on a search for Seattle Mariners include [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil

The Cuil Blog announced that for some queries, they will show a timeline box on the right column. For searches such as Abraham Lincoln, Alan Turing, Michael Jordan, Great Depression, Madison Square Garden and others, you may get a timeline. Let me show you how it works on the Great Depression search. At the top right, you see a timeline box, mousing over one of the lines, will open up some more detail: You can also enlarge the box: This feature can come in handy for many types of queries. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil

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 bl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil

Philipp Lenssen's The World According to Cuil blog post inspired me to take snapshots of how Cuil, the new search engine, matches up the names of our industry to pictures. Here's Danny Sullivan's Wikipedia article, but showing a picture of Danny Sullivan the race car driver: This is my, Barry Schwartz's, search blog, but this is a picture of the psychologist: A search for Greg Sterling (yes, an editor here), shows a picture of Chris Sherman (an editor here): Vanessa Fox, the avatar? Okay, now for some funny ones. Rand Fishkin looking like Google's Matt Cutts: Tamar Weinberg l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil

Now that Cuil is live, I wanted to do a few fast queries to get a sense of how it seems to stack up against Google. With the huge caveat that nine queries are far from letting anyone conclude anything, I still didn't come away with a sense that Cuil has Google-beating relevancy. Instead, it has some flaws though, admittedly, is better than many start-up search engines appear out of the box. Queries I tried: miserable failure: Cuil has suggested it wouldn't be vulnerable to the Googlebomb that made President George W. Bush rank at the top of Google for years for this phrase. Not so. Bush show [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil

Can any start-up search engine "be the next Google?" Many have wondered this, and today's launch of Cuil (pronounced "cool") may provide the best test case since Google itself overtook more established search engines. Cuil provides what appears to be a comprehensive index of the web, offers a unique display presentation, and emerges at a time when people might be ready to embrace a quality "underdog" service. The big questions now are how does the relevancy hold up and can word-of-mouth really still build significant share? [Note: The Cuil site was supposed to be live for searches at [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Cuil | Search Engines: Hakia