Thursday, July 31, 2008

Beware Google: Cuil has arrived

Cuil - pronounced as 'cool' (it's just a starting, get ready to be bombarded with the names of new Web 2.0 tools which don't sound like the way they are spelled!!), was lanuched on 28th of this month with a lot of hype around it. Last time, this kind of anticipation was seen during the launch of the i-phone.

Cuil.com is a search engine that provides a never-seen-before search experience. It gives you option to see search in 2 or 3 columns with relevant details. It shows thumbnail size images along with the links, however, their is no option for image search. The search engine backend, depending on the keyword, automatically categorizes the search under various headings.

Despite getting a volcanic start, Cuil is up against the giants like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL who have successfully maintained their oligopoly over the years.

As of now, Cuil has not monetized its services, the way Google does through adwords. Therefore, it needs to be seen how it performs in the long run. The biggest challenege is to have a dedicated pool of users for the advertising campaigns once it launches its ad-displaying services.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Wanna know who is bitching about you?

Recently, I came across a very interesting tool that could add a new dimension to the process of measuring campaign effectiveness. Summize (www.summize.com) is a search engine that tracks the ongoing conversations on Twitter. Imagine, an advertising agency informing its client about the consumer’s attitude, positive or negative, after few hours of a new launch. Simply mind blowing!!! Although, the number of tweets is not large enough to represent the entire digital population, it is still a very useful tool for monitoring a brand.

Just like Google, Summize tracks the conversations through keywords. However, it does not show the total number of conversations.


Despite this, Summize is a great tool that allows marketers to know and understand consumers’ attitude towards their brand.