Lessons in Cuil

Yahoo and Microsoft, the former the incumbent in the online space before being displaced by Google, the latter, the incumbent in the software and whose name has become synonymous with technology domination, both share the distinction of watching a younger upstart so thoroughly out do them. In Yahoo’s case, they held the title of paid search champion, only to watch their share shrink with each passing month. Microsoft on the other hand. Since its rise to ascension this decade, no company has threatened Google’s leadership position, an amazing feat given the perceived non-existent barrier to switch to another engine. Many have certainly tried, from startups like Powerset (bought by Microsoft) to other old-timers like Ask.com, who continues to spend countless advertising dollars trying to get users to switch. Most of the new startups and especially the efforts of the incumbents receive a smattering of press, but most know they stand no real chance to unseat Google, this despite the powerhouse’s growing list of imperfections. The latest effort in the race to carve out even the smallest piece of the most lucrative pie, Cuil (pronounced "cool") will most likely follow in the footsteps of the others entering Google’s octagon. Unlike a few others, Cuil’s story creates a level of drama not yet seen, a distinctly personal one, as opposed to the impersonal but financial enormous Microsoft and Yahoo talks.

The story of Cuil applies to any space, certainly the performance marketing one, and as it will take some time before we see whether Cuil’s impacts us directly (by acting as a new inventory source), that doesn’t suggest we can’t learn a few things from its attempt. Here is what comes to our mind after playing around with Cuil, which alas delivers disappointing vanity results compared to Google.

• First impressions matter – Google has a history of releasing often underwhelming products but continuously updating them, layering improvement after improvement, so that in a relatively short-order, the original shortcomings seem like the past. Think of those in the performance industry that have succeeded, and most likely, you will notice a similar strategy, where the impetus to act far outweighs their product’s perfection. Certain times, though, the luxury to hit the ground running becomes outweighed by the need to have thought through every little detail, especially when the competition involves going against Google in its core business. Here, Cuil doesn’t score. Its site looks like Blackle.com and the input box for the query displays in a small font as to be off-putting. Thanks to the buzz, it suffers from that wonderful problem of presumably high traffic, which translates into a slow user experience. During its launch with such attention being paid, the company simply can’t afford quirks, even these seemingly small ones, that would cause a potential user to give it the once over.
• Innovative features aren’t innovative if they aren’t helpful – Cuil offers a different search experience, with a few seeming to like the look even if they can’t quite describe what about it they like. Cuil fails because outside of it boasting a larger number of pages indexed than presumably even Google, users won’t have the means to appreciate or experience that in a value added way. That doesn’t imply Cuil lacks the search DNA. A key part of the story behind Cuil exists with its founders, one of whom has not only worked at Google but sold her previous search startup to it. As the NY Times reports, founder "Anna Patterson helped design and build some of the pillars of the company’s search engine, including its large index of Web pages and some of the formulas it uses for ranking search results." That search DNA doesn’t translate into an obvious better user experience. Several of its innovations (multi-column browsing, related search tabs, and category wizard) just don’t seem to do much to help the search experience. They wouldn’t be there if they didn’t, but as is the case with first impressions, they require longer term usage, and the current experience doesn’t warrant that type of commitment.
• The viral loop – MySpace, Facebook, Google, and even Yahoo have something in common, beyond their being online services supported by advertising. Each grew because of the power of its users, i.e. through referrals. Any in the performance marketing space know the challenge of user acquisition, and for most companies, users come and often go. The good ones keep their users; the great ones get their users to bring lots of other users. No consumer site can succeed without this, and while we think of it as only pertaining to obviously viral sites like social networks, any consumer site, especially Google, has experienced this. It makes you want to tell your friends. Cuil needs this more than anything else, but again, the biggest impediment to their growth (and the viral loop) comes from the site not providing a compelling enough reason to do this. Some hard core folks might stick around, but the rest of us (after seeing results that aren’t as good for our company’s and ourselves, won’t). It should have come out with a specialty then gone broad.
• Cart before the horse – You can almost picture yourself as an early employee of Cuil, proud of yourself for having such a meaningful name (ancient something or other) and always one that has branding potential, e.g., The Cuil Index. They could imagine companies wanting to be the Cuilest. They probably have lined up the companies that would want to acquire them or the value of their options when they go public. Maybe they don’t, but the sum of the parts now come across as a company that has shaken off how success could benefit them as opposed to the user.

• Buzz – Cuil more than any other competitor managed to hit a home run in the Buzz department. Getting back to the concept of the viral loop, they know that success will depend on its ability to get interest and for that interest to turn into not just one user but many (ala MySpace during its growth or Facebook still). Buzz though is a double-edged sword, and can backfire if your product doesn’t live up to the expectations set by one’s ambition. Buzz isn’t the cheapest form of advertising, and the ex-Googler battling their former company makes for a story that even we can’t resist. Not everyone can have that type of built in hype, but creating awareness is something that our industry could learn to do better. Cuil did this as well by focusing on privacy, tapping into sensitivities that have arisen with Google.

Screenshots:

Cuil Home Page

Cuil Results Page

Cuil Category

Google Search for "Cuil"