Why I Want Cuil to Succeed

"Please try your search again."

Yesterday, it was nearly impossible to avoid the talk of the supposed Google-killer, Cuil. As first blush, Cuil, which is pronounced “cool,” looks to be just the sort of search tool that would attract an iPhone generation of searchoholics. It’s sleek design and customizable layout look like a solid foundation upon which it will need to build expanded functionality to seriously compete with the likes of Google (or even Yahoo! or MSN Live for that matter).

Here are the two primary reasons I want Cuil to succeed.

1.) Competition is a good thing – Google has completely dominated the search industry for quite some time, with conservative market share estimates exceeding 60 percent. There is plenty of room for services that provide a different user experience than Google. I’d love to see a tool that integrated image and video into search results (perhaps allowing users to customize columns by media type).

2.) Functionality is not everything – In response to my support of Cuil, one of my colleagues made the point that design isn’t important with search. To be honest, the initial appeal of Google for many of us was its simlicity of design and ease of use. I recently read an anecdote from an interview with a Google executive who said that the registered trademark at the bottom of Google.com was added because early users often stared at their screens waiting for the page to finish loading, assuming there must be more than the single search bar. But even Google users know that search alone is not enough. The popularity of iGoogle and similar customizable services is evidence that design does matter for many users.

Hopefully Cuil will overcome early skepticism to provide a real alternative to Google. If not, can someone at Google at least try to improve the aesthetics of the site? Would a dark background be too much to ask?