Google alum take on the search engine with new search: Cuil

Pronounced 'cool,' Cuil is a new search engine engineered by ex-employees of the web behemoth Google that promises a better way to scan the internet. The brains behind the operation is Anna Patterson, who in 2004, created a search so powerful that it was acquired by Google. Now, however, Patterson says she's outdone herself. She and three other colleagues, Russell Power, Louis Monier, and husband Tom Costello have raised $33 million over the past two years since Patterson quit Google, and are launching their search engine Monday.

Cuil is expected to differ from Google in a couple of key ways. Firstly, the layout of search results will be presented in magazine-form, rather than as a series of links. There will be multiple columns for results, and sidebars that offer more information or different search queries. Additionally, Cuil boasts an index of 120 billion web pages, which Patterson speculates is at least 3 times as many as Google. This can't be verified because Google no longer publicly releases its indexing information, but in 2005, the last time Google did divulge that information, it's search had indexed just over 8 billion web pages. Finally, Cuil says it will not store information about its users' search habits or patterns. Google, by contrast, stores extensive information about its users' web activity.

Google has yet to recognize Cuil as a legitimate threat. "Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space," said a Google representative. "It makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that." The company has not verified whether Cuil's index is more extensive than its own. Other competitors that have challenged Google in the past include Teoma, Vivisimo, Snap, and Mahalo.

Check out Cuil.com for more information.