So a triumvirate of ex-Googlers unleashed Cuil (pronounced “cool”; it’s Gaelic for knowledge) three days ago. It’s a new search engine that claims to do a better job with content and relevance, and also claims the largest index out there.
Had a problem with Google searches lately? Yeah, me either. But Google is a scary-ass company. Did you know they store and analyze your search results? Found your house on Google Street View yet? Did you know they want to do that for the entire world? Did you know they want to index the entire world, period? Is your PC microphone and/or camera on? Are you sure?
You can review Google’s privacy policy here, which says, essentially, yeah, we collect a lot of stuff from you, and we won’t do anything creepy with it, but, uh, if we ever want to, we’ll be sure to ask you first. You can review Cuil’s here, which is much friendlier.
I’m going to use Cuil exclusively for a while and see how it goes. They don’t store anything personally identifiable. They had some growing pains the first day, but they seem to be resolved. Google does a great job with search, but they’ve reached a size and influence level that should generate some rebellion just on principle. (And it’s not like you can go to Yahoo!; they’ll be Microsoft just any time now.)
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Fortunately, none of my computers has a camera, and as for the microphone, I don’t really say much to my computer except occasionally some epithet when it doesn’t do what I want or I hit a wrong key. Hmmm. I wonder sometimes when I read about venal government idiocy on the thing I might utter some vile imprecation, but Homeland Security isnt’ listening, are they?
It can’t happen here. It can’t happen here.