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Cuil: Sort of an IUD for teh Interwebs

By Dan O'Connor on July 29, 2008

I’ve given it a day and Cuil the soi-dissant Anti-Google still sucks. From the choice of black as the background color (“See? we are the anti-google! Black! To their white!!!” ) through to the inescapable fact that it doesn’t really work, it sucks. All day, everytime I needed to google something, I forced my self to use cuil – note, do, that ‘to cuil’ is in no way a neologism that is ever going to take off – and each and everytime it failed to give me what I was looking for. It sucks because it isn’t useful. It sucks for all the reasons that the kids over at Metafilter list in infinite detail. It sucks because it just doesn’t seem to add value. I kept asking myself how, even when the wretched thing wasn’t working (as for most of the day it wasn’t), it would outdo Google if it were working. Call me hoplessly lacking in imagination, but I really couldn’t see it. It’s not that I didn’t want cuil to work – I get as vexed by the google hegemon as anyone else. But… Time and again, I went back to Google which, usefully, did what I wanted. Nice that.

And the name… ugggh. ‘Cuil’ as pronounced ‘Cool’? This is surely the ass-stabbingly worst incidence of web2.0 whimsy ever committed to the web.

So yeah, cuil – not so much.

(Update: 404 links fixed)

Posted in , | 3 Responses

Dan O'Connor

Dan is responsible for translating social media research into the analytic and conceptual frameworks which underpin the team’s product and service development. He is particularly interested in how social media has changed the ways in which people exchange information within networks, and the impact that these changes have had on traditionally top-down information systems, such as those prevalent within the health, education and NGO sectors, where he leads RMM’s activities.

Dan’s focus upon health and education stems from his background in academia: He has a PhD in History and, as well as being Head of Research at RMM, he is a member of faculty at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. He has published and lectured widely on the ethics of social media use within healthcare systems, and is involved in the application of social media in medical education at Johns Hopkins hospital.

Dan likes cooking, martinis, and irony. Frequently at the same time.

3 responses to “Cuil: Sort of an IUD for teh Interwebs”

  1. Ben
    Ben
    July 30, 2008 at 09:44 | | Reply

    I read it as sounding like “kweel”, perhaps a combination of the French “cuir” and “huile” – leather and oil. Kinky.

    I have work to do, I should go. Sorry.

  2. harry fowler
    harry fowler
    July 30, 2008 at 13:34 | | Reply

    Cuil as in ……

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wB0OkcCps8

    Couldn’t agree more – crap product and is it hosted on home made server?

  3. Dan O'Connor
    Dan O'Connor
    July 31, 2008 at 19:25 | | Reply

    Ben, this is a family blog, please comport yourself accordingly.

    Harry, kewel indeed. (doesn’t he play for Liverpool?)

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