Cuil (pronounced “Cool”) just launched today with a lot of rave reviews. The new search engine was started by some ex-Google folk trying to take on the internet search giant. They have a long road ahead of them.

At first, I was very impressed with Cuil. I really loved the layout, and the color. The contrast and grid design really aided the search process and made scanning for information easy.

Then I decided to search for stuff I knew about: Me. I looked up my name, which is not a common name in the least. Google returns lots of relevant results, with my own website listed first, including a Wired letter to the editor from some years ago.

Cuil? Meh. My website was listed second, and on the very first page there were 4 results that had no mention of my name, or anything similar to it! They even had a page which was on my old site - it’s been offline for months now! Also, the image in my website’s listing was completely unrelated to me or my website. I have no clue where they got it from! Very bizarre. Lucky it wasn’t something offensive!! I do wonder how they decide which image was to be the lucky image.

News? Calculator? Local results? Conversions? Definitions? These are a few of the amazing features of Google which make it so useful, and they are not present in Cuil. While I really did dig the layout, they have a long way to go before it will actually work as a proper search engine, let alone replace Google.

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There are still a few little things to tidy up, but I’d say that I’ve finally settled in to my new home. (On the web… in the real world, there’s still plenty more to do!!)

I had received feedback that the design of the site had too low a contrast, and initially thought, “Hey! I’ll make a dynamic AJAX-powered thing to allow people to up/lower the contrast of the site!” But I realized that that would just be a cop-out. The design needed fixing. And while it was probably even easier to do than the dynamic styling change, it is sometimes harder to admit a design needs fixing…

How many times do we decide to throw more widgets, javascript libraries, callouts, and additional navigation at a poor design, rather than do a redesign? Which one takes longer and costs more? Which one is more effective?

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To any who might stumble upon my humble home, please do not be discouraged by the mess! We’re almost there with the construction of this website, and I hope to have it completed by next week! Check out some amazing pearls of wisdom and exciting insight into the world of design! Or, you can read this blog.

The portfolio side of the site is 95% there, although I haven’t done the ol browser check yet. Have you ever written something for Firefox, and then checked it in IE7 and 6 and it looked perfect?? Just happened to me today at work… I felt like I did something wrong that I didn’t spend an extra hour fixing IE float bugs and hasLayout issues…

Anyhoo, Welcome!

-Tevi Hirschhorn

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