Team led by ex-Google employees launches new search engine

Menlo Park-based start-up Cuil Inc., which was founded by former Google employees Anna Patterson and Russell Power and ex-IBM man Tom Costello, has just entered the search market with a new engine that is claimed to be the “world’s biggest.” Cuil (pronounced ‘cool’ and meaning knowledge in Irish) is said to feature a new approach to search that will provide users with organized and relevant results based on Web page content analysis.

“The Web continues to grow at a fantastic rate and other search engines are unable to keep up with it,” said Tom Costello, CEO and co-founder of Cuil. “Our significant breakthroughs in search technology have enabled us to index much more of the Internet, placing nearly the entire Web at the fingertips of every user. In addition, Cuil presents searchers with content-based results, not just popular ones, providing different and more insightful answers that illustrate the vastness and the variety of the Web.”

In short, Cuil’s features include:

• Biggest Internet search engine – over 121 billion web pages, 3 times more than Google and 10 times more than Microsoft.
• Organized results – Cuil’s magazine-style layout separate results by subject and allows further search by concept or category.
• Different results – unlike other search engines, Cuil ranks results by the content on each page, not its popularity
• Complete privacy protection – Cuil does not keep any personally identifiable information on users or their search histories

For starters Cuil is optimized for American English but support for major European languages is planned for later this year. It interesting to see another player step up to take on Google and other search giants but Cuil will have a hard task in convincing web surfers that it can be the search engine of choice. But, it’s off to a promising start.

India’s most dependable cars

Maruti Suzuki Swift

This hatchback 5-seater by Maruti Suzuki, which hit the Indian roads in 2005, is designed after the acclaimed Concept S car unveiled by Suzuki at the 2002 Paris Auto show. It is available in diesel and petrol versions. The 1298 cc-engine petrol version has four varieties: Maruti Suzuki Swift LXi, Maruti Suzuki Swift VXi, Maruti Suzuki Swift VXi (ABS) and Maruti Suzuki Swift ZXi, whereas the 1248-cc engine diesel version of the car comes in three variants: Maruti Suzuki Swift VDi ABS, Maruti Suzuki Swift VDi and Maruti Suzuki Swift LDi. The car is priced between Rs 4, 29,280 and Rs 5, 50,812 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

Maruti Esteem

Once known as the ‘most dependable workhorse with a great engine’ this midsize car’s old chassis gradually became unpopular so that Maruti phased out the car to make space for a new sedan — Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire. Esteem had good quality interiors but lacked cabin space and used to come in petrol and diesel varieties. The Esteem’s price varied between Rs 4,63,020 and Rs 6,15,000 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire, which has replaced Esteem, comes in petrol and diesel variants and are priced between Rs 4,88,683 and Rs 7,09,682 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

Toyota Corolla

Toyota started its operations in India by launching the Corolla which was the segment leader for a long time. A fine sedan, Toyota Corolla scaled the popularity chart across the world in no time. Toyota Corolla is also the world’s largest selling car ever. Corollas are currently manufactured in Japan, USA, UK, Canada, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, Philippines, Thailand, Venezuela, Pakistan and India. The 1794 cc-engine car comes in six varieties and are priced between Rs 9,00,090 and Rs 12,20,830 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

Toyota Innova

The Toyota Innova is a medium multipurpose vehicle, which means the car is less than 4,600 mm (181.1 inches) in length as per the European system of size classification. The car was manufactured in Indonesia under supervision by Toyota Astra Motor since 2003.In India, the car replaced Toyota Qualis. It comes in both petrol and diesel variants. A particular diesel version of the car Toyota Innova 2.5 E has recently been discontinued. The 2494-cc engine car is priced reasonably between Rs 7,38,480 and Rs 10,70,740 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

Hyundai Santro

The Seoul-based Hyundai started its India operations in 1998 with the launch of the Santro. It went on to become one of the largest selling cars in the country. This 1086-cc engine 5-seater with either automated or manual transmissions runs in petrol only and comes in four variants: Hyundai Santro Xing Non-AC, Hyundai Santro Xing GL, Hyundai Santro Xing GLS and Hyundai Santro Xing GLS AT. The car is reasonably priced between Rs 2, 73,747 and Rs 4,09,489 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

Honda City ZX

The Honda City is a subcompact car manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Honda since 1981 for the Asian market. The first Honda City was launched in 1981 as a three-door hatchback. Since then, the car has undergone several redesigns over the years. Priced between Rs 7,13,000 and Rs 9,07,000 (ex-showroom, Mumbai), this 5-seater with either automated or manual transmissions, runs in petrol only and comes in five variants: Honda City ZX EXi, Honda City ZX GXi, Honda City ZX CVT, Honda City ZX VTEC and Honda City ZX VTEC Plus.

Ford Endeavour

The Ford Endeavour is another name for Ford Everest, a midsize sport utility vehicle sold in Asia, and the Bahamas. This 2499-cc engine, 7 seater with manual transmission runs in diesel only and comes in three varieties — Ford Endeavour TDCi 4×2 XLT, Ford Endeavour TDCi 4×2 XLT – Limited Edition and Ford Endeavour 3.0 Thunder+ 4×4.The car is priced between Rs 15,54,903 and Rs 18,17,000 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

Mercedes-Benz C-Class

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is an executive car produced by the Mercedes Car Group division of Daimler AG. Introduced in 1993, the C-Class was the most affordable model in the Mercedes lineup until the 1997 arrival of the A-Class. The C-Class is built at Mercedes-Benz factories in Sindelfingen and Bremen, Germany, as well as in DaimlerChrysler’s factory in East London. This 1796-cc engine 5 seater runs on petrol and comes in two variants: Mercedes-Benz C-Class 200 K MT (manual transmission) and Mercedes-Benz C-Class 200 K AT (automated transmission). The car’s diesel variant comes with 2148 cc engine and is of two types: Mercedes-Benz C-Class 220 CDI MT (manual transmission) and Mercedes-Benz C-Class 220 CDI AT (automated transmission).The car is priced between Rs 26,73,877 and Rs 30,76,555 (ex-showroom, Mumbai).