I used to use Web Crawler. I admit it. Then there was that day when I read about a new faster search engine and switched to Google. It was innocent but grew and grew until people said it was too powerful, too unfocused or just evil. Now there is Cuil, a service worth disliking from infancy for its name alone supposedly pronounced "cool":

Rather than trying to mimic Google's method of ranking the quantity and quality of links to Web sites, Ms. Patterson says Cuil's technology drills into the actual content of a page. And Cuil's results will be presented in a more magazine-like format instead of just a vertical stack of Web links. Cuil's results are displayed with more photos spread horizontally across the page and include sidebars that can be clicked on to learn more about topics related to the original search request. Finally, Cuil is hoping to attract traffic by promising not to retain information about its users' search histories or surfing patterns — something that Google does, much to the consternation of privacy watchdogs.

That is great that "Kew-ile" expects to not track users, but the display is tortuous, creating a patchy clutters not unlike looking at image files through thumbnails. I can't think of another patchwork presentation of information. And is it better? On the search for "beer" we learn that one of the top ten sites for that worthy concept is a place called "Sam's Wines and Spirits" while another is "untitled". That is helpful. And the five helpful categories to the right include "Beer and Breweries in Mexico" leading us to these whole links while "Beer Vessles and Serving" takes us to the fascinating topics of "Beer Bottle", "Beer Stein", "Beer Tap" and "Keg". Are these really so vital as needing this highlighting?

Do I need this site? I don't think so. And I surprised it has attracted $33-million (U.S.) in venture capital? Sadly, I don't think so either.