Comments on: A Not so Cuil (Cool) Launch

By: Bill Campbell says, It all starts with great products! « On Product Management

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:08:35 +0000

[...] there are many well known examples of companies started by experience or knowledgeable people (e.g. Cuil and Cassat) that have failed to live up to expectations. Once a company builds a great product [...]

By: What can we learn from Cassatt’s demise? « On Product Management

What can we learn from Cassatt’s demise? « On Product Management — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:59:00 +0000

[...] almost reads like a headline from The Onion. Reminds me a bit of the failed Cuil launch. You know, the search engine, founded by some ex-Google folks, that stated it’s goal was to [...]

By: Mike Boudreaux

Mike Boudreaux — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:26:06 +0000

The (un)Cuil experience in a nutshell – http://tinyurl.com/65y3vc. Maybe here’s why it is so un-cuil – http://tinyurl.com/5dkzr7

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:49:01 +0000

Cuil is definitely going for it, but it’s hard to imagine them doing anything but incremental changes to what Google’s done. And even that would take years of effort.

Me.dium.com has taken a different tack. We have a full web index, but we change the results based on the surfing activity of our user base (now over 2,000,000). It’s in alpha, but I’d be curious to hear your thoughts. http://me.dium.com/search

By: Shaun Connolly

Shaun Connolly — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:25:46 +0000

Good post Saeed. I was one of many who saw Cuil launch to lots of fanfare only to sit there scratching my head asking “and this is better than Google how?” Freshness of search is key if you want to compete with Google.

I also noticed the same issue with pictures not matching the post. The layout forces people to scan across the entire page which if you look at most usability studies is not how people scan a computer screen.

Finally your “BETA” point is spot on. It is critical to properly set expectations; especially when you launch. Otherwise, for people like me who try it assuming it’s ready for prime time…well, suffice it to say that I’m not interested in going back later to see if it’s gotten better. I’ll wait for the groundswell to tell me if/when that comes.