How Cool is Cuil?

A new search engine launches every few months, and it's hard to say if Cuil, which launched yesterday to mixed reviews (see here and here), is really going to be any different than the rest. Maybe Google really does have a perpetual lock on search? It is my first search engine of choice, and I think that would hold true for most genealogists.

But as all of you genealogists out there probably know, when searching for obscure information on your ancestors, the key is to try every last avenue available to you. This includes conducting your searches using at least 2 or 3 different search engines, because the results will almost always be different. What is indexed by one search engine may not appear in another, and what one search engine's ranking algorithm finds important may not be what you need.

Cuil (pronounced COOL) touts itself as the next big competition for Google and, in fact, was founded by several former Google employees. Cuil claims it is different - both because it indexes the "whole" Internet, not just part of it (it "claims" to have indexed 120+ billion pages, 3x the competition), and because it allows you to search anonymously (it doesn't track or save your search history). Instead of using popularity metrics (determined, in part, by what others are searching for and clicking on), Cuil ranks its results based on the content of the page, claiming to return more relevant results.

What I found most interesting about Cuil is the way it arranges results. Instead of a long list of text, Cuil organizes its results into broad categories with a magazine layout look and feel. There are also extra categories organized under tabs on the right-hand side, which suggest ways for you to refine your search if the results aren't exactly what you intended.

Cuil's results are definitely easy on the eyes, but are they relevant for genealogists? I tried several searches, and overall my results were very mixed.

genealogy - Only 41+ million results versus 91+ milllion in Google in my test (although relevancy is much more important than size). The sites on the first few pages mirrored much of what you would find in Google for the same search term, although Cyndi's List is noticably absent from the first ten pages of search results.

pennsylvania genealogy - This search returned several helpful resources, including several of the county PA GenWeb sites. But in my search it also brought up several bogus sites; as a matter of fact in the first three pages there were almost as many bogus results as good ones. And big PA genealogy sites, such as the Web sites for both the Pennsylvania Genealogical Society and the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, as well as the main PA GenWeb page (which come up at #14, #13 and #1, respectively in Google), are noticably missing on the first three pages of search results.

allegheny county cemetery - This one's pretty good, although the logo images aren't matched up to the correct Web sites in some cases. Bu all of the usual sites you would expect appear - The Political Graveyard, Interment.Net, and a great list of cemetery tombstone inscriptions for Allegheny County from the Allegheny River Family Archives. Note: A search for the plural "allegheny county cemeteries" produced less stellar results.

crisp family history - Not so good on this one. My Crisp family can be a tough one because of the common nature of the word "crisp," and it really shows up in these search results, including sites for "crisp skinned duck" and "apple crisp." There are also a few link-type sites for the Crisp surname, such as Ancient Faces and Linkpendium, as well as a RootsWeb message board post, but it missed the Crisp Families and Crisp Dna Project pages which appear on page one of Google results.

My biggest gripe with Cuil (and you'll see it in the "pennsylvania genealogy" search) is that they don't always seem to match up the displayed images with the search results, which can lead to serious credibility problems. In my test, the GenForum logo appeared next to a completely bogus "spoof" site which turns up a different Web site every time you click on it (I'm not going to include the URL here because one of my clicks turned up a porn site- and this is with "safe search" on!), and it wasn't the only "misplaced" logo on that page. On results from my own About.com site I found generic images, as well as the About.com logo, the Family Tree Maker logo, a coat of arms, the Generations Network logo, and a smiling lady (who isn't me).

For those of you who really enjoy getting into the nitty gritty of search engines, be sure to check out Danny Sullivan's analysis. And try Cuil for yourself and let me know what you think!