Stealth startup Cuil (pronounced “cool") is a next-generation search site that claims its index holds three times as many pages as Google, while requiring far fewer servers. Cuil co-founder and former Google project leader Anna Patterson told PC Magazine that Cuil's search index will debut with a 120 billion-page index, compared with Google's 40 billion out of the Internet's total of 140 billion pages.
By dividing different topics among different servers, Cuil can utilize far fewer servers than Google and return more relevant results, according to Patterson. Cuil's server farm can host the index on just $5 million worth of servers, while Google's smaller index requires hardware costing in the hundreds of millions. Queries to Cuil are routed to the pertinent server rather than through the whole server farm.
By dividing different topics among different servers, Cuil can utilize far fewer servers than Google and return more relevant results, according to Patterson. Cuil's server farm can host the index on just $5 million worth of servers, while Google's smaller index requires hardware costing in the hundreds of millions. Queries to Cuil are routed to the pertinent server rather than through the whole server farm.
