Guys stop, you’re KILLING me!
Cuil, the new web browser, boasting a 120 billion index catalog, is the love child of former Google employees: Anna Patterson, Russel Power and Louis Monier. The day before release it was known as the ‘Google killer’, I mean, look at the developers and the promise of organized search results, nevermind the fact that the name itself reminds you how “cool” it will be in its mispelled URL, http://www.cuil.com.
Yeah well, it sucked. The entire idea behind Cuil, their pride and joy, their leg up above Google was the relevant searches it boasted so highly of. Their expectations were pretty far off, but given the people behind it and the financial backing of $33 million, it was taken seriously. Even with that, I get more personal search results from Google, and that isn’t even the idea of Google.
Where am I going with this? Although I am not positive of a correlation, with the Web 2.0 boom came a genocidal trend. As an avid Digger I am no stranger to the weekly ‘Killers’. Cuil was just the latest.
Admitedly, Digg is the site whos death is most often attempted. In no particular order, the following sites attempted e-murder, but with a butter knife;
“MySpace News: The Digg Killer?”
“Will digg die the death of 1,000 cuts?”
“Google Reader + Facebook Application = Digg killer?”
“Streamy–yes, it’s a Digg killer”
“Could NewsTrust be a Digg Killer?”
“Steve Mermelstein wisely states that Google Reader could be a digg killer.”
Although a single butter knife will do no damage, 7 at one time should do something, no? There is one major thing that Google (in respect to Cuil) and Digg have that no one else does.
Namesake.
Google is, even according to Webster’s, the very verb used for searching for something. At the very best, Cuil could be… some form of competition, for a niche market. But you really cannoy combat against the verb for an entire industry. Searching even with Cuil is still going to be referred as ‘Googling’. ‘Cuiling’ dont cut it.
You know how I first heard of Digg? Bloody Kevin Rose. Not even a geniusly drawn icon has the advertising power as an Internet icon. There is something more personal about knowing who you are complaing to about server lag and the like. I mean, he was not even part of the official Pownce team, but I know thousands of people that joined just because of Kevins association with it. He also had his Podcast, Diggnation, which doesnt do anything but help his e-cred.
Hate to say it, but it is very hard to outgrow the website that pioneered the idea you are trying to duplicate. What Google and Digg are doing is their own stuff. They had these ideas of algorithms and funtionality and they went with it. The same mind are developing new things, like the recently released Reccomendation Engine. It is simple, people have to stop spending their time trying to do what someone else did, and do something original. If these applications shed themselves of the ‘Killer’ moniker, I think they would do better.
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