Former Employees of Google Prepare Rival Search Engine -- Journal 11 - August 3, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/technology/28cool.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Former employees of Google are prepared to take on this massive search engine. Anna Patterson, a former Google employee of two years, just launched a new search engine to compete with Google. Cuil, pronounced ‘cool’, as it is named, is the latest company launched to compete with Google’s search engine.

Of course these founders realize that, essentially, the public must decide which search engine will be number one. In June, Google accounted for 61.5% of search inquiries, while Yahoo had 20.9%, and Microsoft had 9.2%.

Google has been the leading search engine for the past few years. For example, in 2005, they were the leader in search inquiries with 84% of consumers making it their default search engine. But Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask Jeeves were already climbing the list of search engines. Yahoo increased by 11%, MSN by 8%, and Ask Jeeves by 12%.

However, analysts believe Cuil has a chance, because of its founders. Armed with former Google insiders and top researchers, this company has many valuable resources backing it. These researchers claim that Cuil has 120 billion web pages in its index, making it the largest search engine than any other.

In my opinion, this is a brave attempt on Cuil’s part. Not only do they have to compete with Google, but, essentially, Cuil also has to gain market share from Yahoo and Microsoft. There are large companies out there competing with Google everyday, and Google still seems to rein the web.

Do I think it is impossible? No, but it will be a challenge. It is tough enough for new businesses to enter the market anyway, but to openly claim that you are directly competing with a large company like Google is brave.

More power to Cuil if they can achieve this goal. I think it is great for other companies to challenge Google. The competition may inspire creativity and new concepts for either organization.

Reference: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search/Google-Reigns-as-Its-Competitors-Gain/