Cuil; Apathy towards an Engine

What shall I talk about for today ... oh, wait, it's Recon-Thr which means I should go out and explore something new. In theory.

And since, Cuil is out and receiving mixed reviews, I thought I would test out a few search engines today. Just to see how Cuil fares. I'm going to pit it against Google, Yahoo and against my better judgement, MSN.

Details about my tests.

I like to do a bit of translation on the side so searching for breakdowns of word forms is a regular activity. If you use the auto translation tools, you know as well as I do that those apps only work on a very basic level. If you are trying to learn a new language and hence, want to understand a language structure and eplxore its word form, an auto translat is not the best way to do. I like to search for various words formations, just to see how someone has analyzed it, any explanations to see what words are derived from it, etc.

So how do these guys fare when I look for a breakdown of aangegaan using keywords "dutch verb aangegaan". This will be test one.

And of course, I look for a lot of sci fi info. So I'm currently raving about Dr Horrible and what a fantastic job Joss Whedon and co. have done with it. Let keywords 'Dr Horrible' be test two.

Test 3 will be a bit of a narcissist test. Quite a few times I might thrown in my blog name and say "Please check here for a sample of my writing style". Well, some of it showcases it. Anyway, so I am also banking on the person in question just typing in my blog name in a search engine and coming up with my post. Worst cases, they might search for it off hand, if they didn't have my file infront of them. I know I search for my friend's art stuff by simply typing in their blog name. So what's the result if I type 'myfavscifi'?

Last test. When I hear something on the news, I will of course search the ewords I can recall to find out more. A few days ago there was a bit of news stating that the trial for the matron accused of abusing girls in Oprah's school for girls in South Africa is underway. So what if I wanted to know more? Keywords "oprah school trial".



Google

Test One
First on Google's list is Woxikon which is a site I am starting to love. It maybe a bit all over the place but when you want to explore word formation, such sites are an absolute delight.

Test Two
Yay for google. The first on the list is Dr Horrible's official sing-along blog.

Test Three
I say pass. If I type just 'myfavscifi', I am second on google search results. Apparently someone linked to mine and it came up first. Oh well.

Test Four
Google brings up a lot of current news from Yahoo and BBC about the trial itself. So far so good.



Cuil

Test One
A bit of an epic fail on the side of Cuil. If you try it and see, there are no pages that come up for the query.

Test Two
Okay, there are a lot of results coming up, some of which are posts about Dr Horrible but no sign of the official Dr Horrible site. So maybe not an epic fail but just fail. It's annoying that the first two results don't seem to be related in anyway to Whedon's creation.

Test Three
Am I seeing a trend of 'this is so not happening' here?

Test Four
There are some old articles about Oprah's school and how there will be a trial. Relevant articles but nothing recent. Well, somewhat irrelevant, especially if I wanted the recent news. So I add the word 'July' to keywords ... fail! Nothing comes up.


Yahoo

Test One
First on the list of Yahoo searches is Verbix. I don't know this site but I am certainly going to bookmark this. Nice! This site has a nice breakdown of aangeggan; shows us the various morphemes that make up the word and how they are used with various pronouns and tenses!

By the way, do note that a lot of the top searches in Yahoo was also amongst the top searches of Google and vice versa.

Test Two
Hooray for Yahoo. The official Dr Horrible's site was the top of the list. Bravo.

Test Three
At least my blog is top of the list. Good job Yahoo.

Test Four Once again, recent and relevant news. CNN, BBC and AllAfrica. Good good.



MSN

Test One
Okay, not so good. There are a lot of unrelated sites coming up, most of them in Dutch (which is ok) but not quite related to breakdown of the word. Hmm, not giving you any points here.

Test Two
Brownie points for you. Yes, the official Dr Horrible's site was the top of the list.

Test Three
My blog is second on the list. Not bad, I would even grudgingly say good.

Test Four
Well, the articles maybe about Oprah and the school and about a trail but it dates back to April. Nothing recent. So fail.


Results

At the end of the day, I must admit I am not eager to use Cuil. Let's see how it goes and how it grows and maybe I might be won over. For now, Google and Yahoo will be my main search engines. On an unrelated note, my resolve to keep avoiding MSN has been inadvertently strenghtened through this.