Crenk » Search Engine

TubeRadio Redefines Online Music Listening

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:58:20 +0000

It’s not uncommon for us here at Crenk to come across web applications that do the same thing, the only differences are that some might do it better or worse than another. In this case, the team has come across a very interesting music listening application called TubeRadio.

Once again for the music lover in all of us, this just astounds me. Now it does not have the capability to tap into your own stored music, but as powerful as this search engine is, this could very well replace my Pandora or Last.Fm efforts, even if only for a little while. TubeRadio calls itself the Youtube for music. After you see the video below, you’ll know what I mean.

So what do you think? They search is amazing and very thorough. I’m surprised at how music it can find, and even more so by how seamless the integration of listening and/or watching your music can be. During the video the speaker mentions it being like your personal MTV. Yeah, MTV, from when it used to actually play music.

My experience with TubeRadio has been a good one. I’ve found what I want to listen to, it streams everything smoothly with little problem. In my opinion the only thing really missing is the ability to tap into my own music, but I can overlook that for now since I’m lining up some great music of my own, and of other recommended playlists.

GazoPa: Search Images by Similarity

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:56:41 +0000

GazoPa is an image search engine that allows you to scour the web for images not by entering a word – but by entering another image.

Its main function is to find similar images around the web to that of the one you entered. It’s like the service currently offered by Google Labs.

You can also draw a quick sketch of what you want your picture to look like and submit it so you get back photographs or artwork. You can then filter your results by colour, shape and size. The search engine will also bring back video content that is related to the images – it. If a picture is used as a thumbnail for a video on YouTube then GazoPa will retrieve the video as well.

Check it out here.

KickAssTorrents: Lightning Quick Torrent Search Engine

Steven Finch — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:33:53 +0000

There are so many torrent search engines in the market and as we all know most of them are considered illegal by all major media companies. I find it funny that these torrent search engines are normally just indexing where files are stores online in the same way as Google, and not even hosting the files on their own servers.

The newest torrent search engine on the market is KickassTorrents. KickassTorrents has a great user interface that is very easy to use and search through. Additionally, the site has an amazing index of music, files, documents, movies, games, tv shows, applications and more.

The community around KickassTorrents seems to also be on the rise as they have a growing number of leechers and seeders on the site. Plus, they have additions like a Firefox addon, Vuze addon and others.

If you are looking for a Torrent Search engine that is on the rise and is already in the top 5,000 alexa, then KickassTorrents is for you!

Yahoo’s $3.65 Billion Mistake: Yahoo Closes GeoCities

Steven Finch — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:29:08 +0000

Back in 1999 Yahoo purchased GeoCities for $3.65 billion, but today it has sent out a “final notice” warning GeoCities users that they are pulling the plug on the 26th October.

Yahoo currently is shutting down a lot of services which it seems as though previous CEO’s purchased for no real reason. Current Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz seems to have her head switch on and is focusing on Yahoo’s key business areas:

Homepage
Mail
Messenger
Everything “mobile”
Search
Media experiences across sports, news, finance, entertainment

“Yahoo’s goal is to be at the center of people’s online lives, and these efforts all support that,” says a source.

What is Yahoo wanting to sell:

Yahoo Games!
Yahoo Hot Jobs
Yahoo Small Business
Zimbra
Yahoo Shopping
Delicious

Here’s the farewell letter:

Torrent Scan: Multiple Torrent Search Engine

Steven Finch — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:01:02 +0000

Previously we talked about Torrents.to in which allows users search various torrent search engines in one place. On of our readers has let us know about TorrentScan, in which is another torrent meta search engine but it has a lot of great features that some others dont.

TorrentScan is a torrent meta search engine which allows users to search across various torrent search engines all in one place. TorrentScan allows you to search Mininova, SumoTorrent, BTjunkie, Isohunt, Fenopy, Torrentz and more. TorrentScan also lets you customise your search and even the entire look and feel of the site itself. With a simple click you are able to see your search results between the torrent search engines.

If you are looking for an easy and simple way to search through multiple torrent sites at once, then TorrentScan should be your first option.

Yahoo Search Ad Deal With Microsoft Imminent

Steven Finch — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:18:54 +0000

It has been reported that sources at a major client of investment house ThinkEquity say that the firm considers a Microsoft (MSFT) link-up with Yahoo! (YHOO) in the search business to be “imminent”. The comments were made by analyst William Morrison. ThinkEquity did not have an immediate comment.

Sources beyond ThinkEquity speculate that under the terms of the arrangement, Yahoo! will be paid $3 billion upfront and will get 11o% of the revenue that its searches provide after traffic acquisition costs in each of the first two years. In the third year, that figure would go to 90%.

Microsoft will then have control of 30% of the US search market if they can close the deal with Yahoo. Given that Microsoft’s own Bing is on the rise also, it will then only be about taking share away from Google. However, I can see how this deal with allow Microsoft to take marketshare from Google, Google has much better technology and a huge amount of brand loyalty. comScore put Google’s US June search share flat at 65%, Yahoo! at 19.5%, down .5%, and Microsoft at 8.4%, up .4%.

For Yahoo!, the transaction would give it the opportunity to lock in a substantial revenue stream from search and potentially save several hundred million dollars over the next three years by cutting development personnel and costs. If the transaction materializes, Yahoo!’s share could jump $4 or $5.

Cnet’s Laptop Finder

Dean — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:11:37 +0000

Recently, my laptop has been given me some trouble. It got slow and unresponsive and not so much to my surprise, the other day she died – the screen just stayed white and the hard drive just couldn’t live any longer. I guess that’s what you get for working on one computer eight hours a day squeezing every bit of juice you can out of her. Five hours ago I was in the market for a new laptop until I discovered Cnet.com’s laptop finder.

Basically, it’s a constantly updated database of laptops currently available to me and you. You go through its interactive list ticking off requirements for your new pride and joy such as operating system, memory, screen size and other jargon.

Then, after less than five minutes of putting in your needs and desires for a new laptop the system returns a list of laptops with prices defines to what you want. It also allows you to “check prices”. This feature, when used lets you compare prices between top retailers where the computer is available both online and offline such as Amazon.

So for example, as a work laptop I put in medium needs with less of an emphasis on performance as I won’t exactly be streaming HD films from the net. I got a few good models with the pick of the litter being a HP Compaq Business Laptop. A great laptop for a good price of $694 at the California Computer Store. Spot on.

Bing Still Cant Index Our Site Correctly!

Steven Finch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:17:38 +0000

For Crenk Bing is now the third most popular search engine in terms of traffic. However, about a month or so ago I actually submitted our site to be added to the Bing search engine. Since this time we have seen a slight increase in traffic and our site has been indexed properly, but we still aren’t even appearing for the results we should appear for.

For example our own site name Crenk, you would think we would appear as the first result obviously. However, we still dont even appear in the results at all, even after being properly indexed by Bing.

Oparla: The Search Engine In Which You Can Choose How You Want To View Results

Steven Finch — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:20:40 +0000

Have you been looking for a cool alternative search engine that looks a lot better than Google? Well then Oparla may be the search engine for you. Oparla is a basic search engine that provides you search results in 3 different styles, image, classic and list.

Classic search results are very similar to Google and Yahoo’s layouts, but are just a bit more colourful. Image search results are show is a list of images with a related url at the bottom. List view is just a basic list of the urls, summary, title and rating.

Oparla is built upon the Yahoo API in which provides a great alogrhythm for the site. However, as everything the Yahoo API is obviously not as good as the Google search results. I would like to see the Oparal search engine provide a bit more functionality, but at least they arent afraid of providing something very different and off the wall.

Taptu: Search Only iPhone Friendly Sites with Free iPhone App

Steven Finch — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:26:19 +0000

Recently Taptu announced the immediate release of their own iPhone app. The Taptu iPhone application claims to improve search on the iPhone with an easy-to-use interface and iPhone-friendly search results.

Performing a search on an iPhone can be a frustrating task, as the results are the same as those received on a desktop search and may not be viewable on a phone, for example a Web site running on Flash. Additionally, results are provided in long lists and multiple pages. Taptu only shows you search results that are made for the iPhone.

As well as only providing iPhone friendly results the Taptu app has the ability to search multiple platforms, share results, and more.

Download the free Taptu application here.

My First Thoughts on Bing and The Results for Crenk

Steven Finch — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:42:17 +0000

There has been a lot of talk recently about Bing and what amounts of traffic and growth it has been seeing. Other blogs such as the Inquisitr have been talking about how Bing has been bringing in more traffic than Yahoo. I just wanted to run through my first impressions of Bing and the results they have sent to Crenk.

Bing is very much the same as Live.com and I really think this is a marketing ploy from Microsoft than any major changes. The search engine still delivers poor results in comparison to Google and Yahoo. However, they are now adding channel specific search engines. For example if im looking for flights Bing works this out and then delivers me to the flight specific search engine within Bing. Thus, doing search this way provides more specific advertising opportunities and deliverys more detailed results that Google just cant compete with.

With regards to results from Bing to Crenk it has been very minimal. Bing has sent Crenk 171 pageviews, while Yahoo sent 1,629 and Google 60,195 in the same period. Thus, Bing has a huge amount of work to do to bring itself up to where it needs to be.

15 Cool, New and Useful Web Apps You’ve Never Heard Of

Steven Finch — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:19:19 +0000

I have spent a long time lately trying to find unique tools that will help me simplify certain tasks in my day to day activity. I have put together a list of 15 web apps that have really help me to save time online. All these applications are different markets but they all have one thing in common, they are cool, new and very useful!

Waze

Driver-Generated Live Maps and Real-Time Road Information. Driving with waze mobile client lets users passively and actively share real time data and receive the optimal route to their destination.

Spacky

Spacky is a free keyword research tool. Spacky lets the user type in any keywords and then lets them know search volumes in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Curculator

Curculator is a very simple currency converter and calculator that has been design to save users time. The currency converter uses daily mid-market rates from various trusted sources. All rates are refreshed daily. However, I would really like to see them announce their source for the financial information

Itumz

Itumz is a powerful web application that lets you make lists, access them from any web browser, and share them with your friends and the world. The rich user interface is simple to use and makes it easy to create to-do or task lists.

Superminder

To-do’s are too simple, calendars are overly complex, sometimes you just need to be reminded. Superminder is a micro-application that will make sure you don’t forget.

Springo

Springo is a visual search engine like no other. Currently Springo lists some of the main search results but is still yet to get very detailed.

Tatango

Tatango, the ad-supported group SMS service. The service is dead simple to use, as it should be. I made the jump from accountless bum to en masse messaging mogul in all of about 2 minutes.

Amplify

Amplify is a service for sharing clips from articles, blog posts or anything else you read on the web with your friends on Twitter.

Topsy

Topsy is a search engine powered by tweets. Topsy sees the Internet as a stream of conversations. Topsy treats people differently from the webpages they create and the things they say.

Moogo

Create your own website with ease. It’s fast and it’s free! You can have your own website in less than ten minutes and begin using it right away!

Snipi

Snipi uses drag and drop technology that will change the way you browse, organize, shop, share, and discover the Internet.

Charts.fm

Charts.fm is the ultimate tool to create your personal music charts by (re)mixing the charts of more than 2650 radiostations.

FeedMingle

FeedMingle makes lives simpler for web designers/developers, feed readers, bloggers, or just anyone who wants to merge two or more RSS / Atom feeds into one. It mixes all the feeds provided and creates one RSS feed, Atom feed, JSON feed, and a html widget to simply paste into your website or blog.

Fotopedia

Fotopedia is breathing new life into photos by building a photo encyclopedia that lets photographers and photo enthusiasts collaborate and enrich images to be useful for the whole world wide web.

Twitcaps

Twitcaps is a directory of images inside twitter messages by arranging into list that refreshes as new images are tweeted. Twitcaps is a great stream of twitter images and you can even see which are the newest and most popular.

Ask Cant Even Get The Basic Twitter Reply Right!

Steven Finch — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:14:28 +0000

I find it funny how multinational companies still get the littlest things wrong. Ask is really trying to find it legs in the search engine market, but they obviously have a huge amount of competition to stand out. Today I followed Ask on twitter with my own personal twitter account.

Now I hate automatic direct messages on twitter at the best of times, but this is what Ask sent me.

Now if ask can get something as basic as a reply message wrong the why the hell do they think they can get me to use their search engine! Jeeves its “look forward to answering your questions!” Sort it out.

How To Add Your Site to Bing Search Engine

Steven Finch — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:28:57 +0000

How to Add Website/ blog to Bing:

1. Navigate to this URL if you want to submit your website to Bing. You will need to sign in with your Windows Live ID to access the webmaster center.

2. Enter the website URL and also sitemap URL (sitemap is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended to add one).

3. Next step is to verify your website and this can be done either with XML verification or HTML meta tag verification. You can get more details from the help center.

4. Once your website or blog is validated, you can see the complete details of the website submitted like number of URLs indexed, any issues with the crawling etc.

First TV Advertisement for Bing.com from Microsoft

Steven Finch — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:59:55 +0000

Bing the new search engine from Microsoft launched on the 1st of June and since then they have been getting a lot of hype and even people moving over to use their service. I personally cant see the difference between Bing and Live.com in terms of results, if anyone can let me know how they are different that would be great.

Anyways, Microsoft has just launched the first advertisement for their new search engine Bing and here it is!

Microsoft Has Launched Bing

Steven Finch — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:37:48 +0000

Bing is the new search engine by Microsoft which was due to launch on the 3rd of June, but for some reason it has launched today!

After using the service for the last ten minutes or so there seems to be do real major difference between Live.com and Bing.com. Search results are still terrible and it is really only the interface that has improved and only slightly.

I cant see Bing in its current form taking any search share from Google. In fact I think in its current form it is probably going to do the opposite and give Google more share of the market. Im amazed that Microsoft cant get a good search algorhythm and that Google are just so far ahead in actually providing quality results.

Microsoft really seems to just lack originality when it comes to search and the majority of their online products. MSN has never really done too much, Windows media player is completely outdated and hotmail needs a revamp but never seems to change much, now bing is the search engine that couldnt.

It would be great to hear your thoughts on the new Bing search engine. The best example of the results is that I searched ‘Crenk’ and the our own website came up 9th! Terrible!

Try New Bing Search Engine from Microsoft Before Launch

Steven Finch — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:21:05 +0000

There has been a lot of hype around Microsofts new search engine Bing. However, the site isnt supposed to launch until June 3rd, but I thought I would let everyone use it now!

Type in the URL: http://www.reddit.com/tb/8ot6z

Its as simple as that!

Update: Bing was due to launch on the 3rd of June by Microsoft, but it seems because of the leaks they have no just launched the site today!

ErrorKey: The Alt Search Engine for Error Messages

Steven Finch — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:41:40 +0000

There are so many alternative search engines in the market today. I came across a new alternative search engine that might be work bookmarking, ErrorKey. ErrorKey is a new search engine dedicated to provide results for any error you encounter. Developed in a way that it crawls across the web to search for information associated to various errors plus builds itself up from contribution by users and other developers alike, it just requires you to type in an error and get information about it. It also has pre-defined tags that contain search results associated to various devices, programs etc (HTTP to Cars). It’s neat and pretty useful if you are looking for errors alone.

Source: Startupmeme

Google Ads Appear on Isohunt and TorrentFreak Gets Details a little Wrong

Steven Finch — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:39:22 +0000

Today it was repoted by Torrentfreak that according to a report in the Norwegian press today, some companies have reacted uncomfortably to the news that their Google Adwords text ads have been appearing on IsoHunt, the world’s third largest BitTorrent site.

Google has a policy of not displaying ads on sites that are involved in or linked to copyright infringement, with many torrent sites previously excluded from the scheme. Of course, some still carry Google ads, purely because Google is unaware of the nature of those sites, but with IsoHunt the situation is different. On IsoHunt the Google ads aren’t directly served by Google, but by Ask.com, a Google AdWords ‘reseller’.

Ask.com, formerly known as Ask Jeeves, works with several other BitTorrent sites. Only on IsoHunt have they displayed search based ads that came from Google AdWords campaigns. They have been doing so for several months, perhaps years, but up until now nobody complained, or knew.

In a statement, Jan-Henrik Ohme, head of digital marketing at Sony BMG said “We have stopped the section of the campaign that goes to the third party until Google cleans up the issues. We have contacted Google, and they took immediate action.”

For its part, Google Norway has apologized for the situation, and said that the advertisers should not be held responsible for the placement of the ads, since due to the 3rd party involvement, they had no way of knowing where they would appear. The campaigns are not limited to Norway though, and Ask.com certainly has something to explain to Google.

This situation was bound to happen but some of the companies dont really understand why it happened. Ask.com was only allowed to have their ads on Isohunt because the deal they started with Google was done after the Isohunt deal. Thus, Google allowed all historical deals to continue as normal. Therefore, it is impossible to now have Google ads on new bittorrent related sites.

Additionally, the ads are not done through Ask.com, they are from Ask.co.uk. This is because Ask.com sell their own adwords type program still and Ask.co.uk controls the Google Adwords reseller program.

The Battle of the Startup Pages, Which Type of Page Do You Use?

Steven Finch — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:15:00 +0000

I have been wondering for a long time now “what makes a good startup page”? How does an internet user determine what will be their start page and what just doesn’t do it for them? In this article I’m going to run through some of the basic types of startup pages out there today and see what characteristics are good for me and what aren’t.

The first type of startup pages are the ‘add your own modules‘ type of startup pages. About a year and a half ago these types of pages were being developed left right and center, but lately they seem be going into liquidation very fast.

Netvibes - Netvibes is a module based startup page that has been growing from strength to strength recently. They are based in France but have been able to build up traffic worldwide. All modules can be customised in whatever style the user sees fit. Netvibes is the leader in this type of startup page and I every time I head back to their site they seem to have made improvements.

Pageflakes - Pageflakes is a startup page very similar to Netvibes except they don’t have the adoption levels of Netvibes. Pageflakes was acquired by Live Universe about either months ago because they were struggling and running out of liquid funds.

iGoogle - iGoogle is basically the Google version of Netvibes but with the Google search option at the top of the page. iGoogle has very limited themes, but it is simple to integrate with everything Google of course.

These types of startup pages are good for the user because they allow you to place whatever modules you want onto the page, but there is such a thing as information overload. Personally, Im not so sure about these types of sites as startup pages, because they are simply just ugly to look at because everything is a base size module and they just take too long to setup!

The next type of startup pages are the ‘one page aggregators‘. This type of startup page brings together some of the most popular rss feeds from around the internet and puts them all onto one page. Basically it is a rss reader for the lazy.

Popurls - Popurls is the original startup aggregator which brings together some of the best sites in the tech industry. Sites include Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Yahoo Buzz, Metafilter and more. The site has a very simple layout showing the top 10 from each site. Additionally, they have added videos from Youtube and photos from Flickr.

Alltop - Alltop is a new site from Guy Kawasaki (evangelist at Apple), in which he takes the idea of popurls and spreads it to pretty much every time of market. This is basically an rss reader for every type of industry for the most basic of internet users.

Original Signal – Original Signal used to be one of the leaders in this space, but recently they have been losing market share fast. Original Signal covers mainly tech and business topics, but they have seemed to update the service in many years.

These startup pages are great if you just want to have a quick look at one site in the morning and see what is happening around the world on a specific topic. However, they don’t allow users to choose the rss feeds you want to read, this can be done easily by using an rss reader.

Finally the other type of startup page is the simple search engine and 99% of the time its Google. Personally Google is my startup page but mainly because I find it easier to click the home button at the top and then type in my search, instead of typing it into the top of Firefox. Google as a page is so simplistic and it provide immense functionality behind that basic exterior.

Overall, what makes a good startup page? This is probably a different answer for every single person. However, I do think that startup pages need to be simple, have a good search option and allow the user to customise if they wish. As always simplicity and functionality are the keys.

SnappyFingers: Question and Answer Search Engine With a lot of Potential

Steven Finch — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:16:17 +0000

SnappyFingers is a new question and answer search engine that is slowly making waves in the search space. SnappyFingers currently has over 10 million questions in their database and has recently partnered with Kosmix in which you can see Snappy’s results within their searches.

SnappyFingers is a great place to come if you are looking to find the answers to the most basic of questions. Their search box is simple to use and users can just type in a question as if they were saying it out loud. This reminds me a little of Powerset in which was purchased by Microsoft for $100m about six months ago.

In terms of downside I mainly think that all comes from design. The design of SnappyFingers needs a huge amount of work. Currently the SnappyFingers seems to be set onto a fixed width, in which it really needs to be fluid. Additionally, the questions are actually quite hard to read and if the results were show in the same kind of way as Powerset or Google, then it would be much easier to scan the page looking for the answers you require. Finally the sidebar they are using is complete the wrong size for this type of site. A 300px sidebar is not needed, I’m sure 160px would be more than adequate.

I think SnappyFingers has a lot of potential, but I’m really not keen on the design and if I owned the company that would be the first thing I changed. Additionally, I’m not really sure where this company is going and what market they are trying to enter, because I know they are a question and answer search engine, but why would I use SnappyFingers over Yahoo Answers for example?

Cuil, The Search Engine That Couldn’t…Search

Luis Sandoval — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:26:13 +0000

I don’t know where to begin with this one. It was not that long ago, earlier this year, when Cuil was touted as the Google killer. This search engine was to massacre all known search engines known to man, a powerhouse of innovation and usability. There was a lot of hype, some amazing PR, and the world anticipated this amazing release. Sure many of us had out doubts, Google was just so dominant, how could this awkwardly named search engine be anything better. Then again, Google was an odd word some years ago prior to it making its debut.

So just happend with Cuil, and where is it today? Well aside from the fact that the search engine was a miserable failure. Aside from the fact that the search engine was actually crashing sites. And aside from the fact that there were entire sites, highly trafficked sites, that just did not make the listings. Cuil really tried to succeed, but alas, it was a marketing disaster, a sinking ship, a search engine site that just could not search.

The backlash was expected and even became the root of several jokes in the tech community. I personally remember looking for stories on Cuil so that I could laugh. Critics did not hold back anything with their analysis of the search engine, and almost immediately the wind left its sails.

Today those using Cuil are very very very few and far between. With the number of users practically hitting rock bottom, I almost wonder who is actually using this search engine for anything other than research. I’m convinced that only people using Cuil for research on how not to build a search engine are the numbers that are being recorded. I can’t imagine anyone seriously using it for any practical purposes. Perhaps the developers left their computers on a an infinite search loop to give it some traction, but I doubt it.

Alas Cuil, as we wrap up 2008, you will not be missed, but gosh you provided us with laughs. Thank-you!

Social Mention: The New Social Media Search Engine On The Block

Steven Finch — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:08:31 +0000

I came across a new search engine this morning called Social Mention. Social Mention is a social media search engine, search areas include blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarks, comments, images and more.

Social Mention is great for website owners/ceo’s for keeping track of the buzz surounding their web properties. However, I would have liked to see the text size in the main column a little smaller, thus allowing more articles above the fold.

Social Mention is a great start at a search engine and Im looking forward to seeing how it grows in the future. I think Social Mention is already a lot easier to use than Technorati!

Cuil – The Google Killer?

Mike Panic — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:08:29 +0000

Searching is big business. Those listings on the right side of any Google search are there because someone paid money to advertise there. Same goes with the top 2 or 3 links. Google makes a lot of money off of these paid placements, which are there based on their dynamic search technology. Google has also come under fire for the way in which it ranks sites, called Page Rank, it is a top secret way they calculate what search results should be at the top for any given term, based on their algorithm that, some have suggested, is based on the number of in-bound and out-bound links from other sites.

Google is the killer app of this decade, no one is doubting that. It is so popular it has become a verb, people just say, “Can you Google this for me?” which is almost impossible to do with anything anymore. So what if a new search engine comes along and tries to flatten the playing field?

That is exactly what Cuil (pronounced Cool) is trying to do. They claim to index three times the number of sites Google does and display them in a three-across pattern. That alone is kind of unique for searches, as they have always gone vertically. They have also implemented tab searches, a kind of, well maybe if you were looking for camera you might also want to look for digital camera. The search engine works, that really isn’t a question, but why should I use it?

Google does so many things now, like simple and complex math problems, fast weather look-up, package tracking from UPS and other services, all the way to stock quotes and word definitions. For me, it has eliminated the need to go to specialized sites if I can just put a special query in the Google search bar in Firefox. Cuil is also missing an image search function, something even Microsoft and Yahoo have worked into their site.

Cuil has some cool features, like roll overs, drill-down menu’s and the tabbed feature mentioned earlier. They are taking on the proverbial 800 pound gorilla by going after Google too. My two cents say that Cuil will have a small cult following for a while but ultimately, this will only make Google stronger.