$33,000,000 Doesn't Buy What It Used To
Like everyone else in techdom I had to see if all the bad hype about Cuil was warranted. I am now torn on whether to pile on or say 'hey it's a beta'. But it doesn't say it's a beta. It should. Like every one else that tried Cuil I had to see what came back when I "Cuiled" myself. It was indeed sad. I have no idea what the hell those pictures are for the results but it makes me almost want to go after them for defaming my name with ludicrous context and unrelated photos. I certainly don't need any help with that as I have been very capable of doing that for myself for years. My first page Cuil results apparently somehow think that I am closely relate to a storage shed. I went to the link and searched for any variation on my name with no luck. I realize this is likely an attempt at associative results but... I can't say I'm impressed that some totally unrelated storage shed comes up... at least the image on that result actually matches its textual context. My best guess is they keyed in on a post for a company I once formed called Expedition Outdoors and that A Plus is similar to Apress and thus an Outdoor shed from A Plus must obviously be related to me. Give me a break. Whatever the relationship they created... it's a bad result to be as number 2. My suspicion. It's a sponsored link and thus why it's the only one with a truly relevant photo. That makes it even more revolting.
Next I decided to click on the image I highlighted below.
The following is what I got. Not once but repeatedly.
In a step in the right direction I did get the following when I clicked on some of the other images.
The most interesting result which ODDLY was accurate is below. I had to look at the URL twice to see if they were showing me some sort of mangled cache they had created for me. It turns out this page is for real. I have no idea why. I guess YachtChartersMagazine.TV grabs every RSS it can get it's hands on and wraps it in their own garbage. This is text and a quick bio from an article on WS-Attachment that I wrote a number of years back for .NET Developers Journal. I have to say - "Good On Ya" to Cuil for that one. I have never seen this result show up in Google before. Maybe Cuil is in a partnership with YachtChartersMagazine.TV and provide them with dynamic content that comes with the same relevance you get from their stellar *ahem* search engine.
