Like others have said, Cuil's failure was a huge PR push, not the release. I'm sure that they did actually get a ton of useful feedback from it that they can use to improve their service. In this case, though, it came at the cost of being branded a failure by many people.
If they had avoided the boastful claims and stuck to low profile releases, they could have gathered useful feedback without the expectation of being a great search engine. Perhaps if they had tried this they actually would have managed to get themselves up to google's level by the time the general public became aware of them.
Cuil screwed up by doing the full-court PR press before the product was ready. They could have launched the product in a more low-ley fashion without the backlash.
The idea isn't a bad idea; Google isn't going to be the best search engine forever. (there are friends who swear that Yahoo has better results for them); Eventually they'll be unseated. just not by Cuil, because they did it so badly, and then killed themselves with bad publicity
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In one word: Cuil.
How would you rate their chances now that they established themselves as a high-profile failure?
Like others have said, Cuil's failure was a huge PR push, not the release. I'm sure that they did actually get a ton of useful feedback from it that they can use to improve their service. In this case, though, it came at the cost of being branded a failure by many people.
If they had avoided the boastful claims and stuck to low profile releases, they could have gathered useful feedback without the expectation of being a great search engine. Perhaps if they had tried this they actually would have managed to get themselves up to google's level by the time the general public became aware of them.
Cuil screwed up by doing the full-court PR press before the product was ready. They could have launched the product in a more low-ley fashion without the backlash.
I think it was a good idea. Now they can move on to more productive enterprises instead of working longer on a bad idea.
The idea isn't a bad idea; Google isn't going to be the best search engine forever. (there are friends who swear that Yahoo has better results for them); Eventually they'll be unseated. just not by Cuil, because they did it so badly, and then killed themselves with bad publicity
Damn you beat me to it. They may have gotten away with it too if they'd laid low for a bit before to let the dust settle before the PR push.