Today, Cuil, also tagged with the name of “The World’s Biggest Search Engine” announced the launch of their new Google competing search engine.  To give a little background on the topic, here is a brief excerpt from a CNNMoney article published today online:

With hours of being launched Monday, Cuil - a new search engine created by former top Google engineers - was already being touted in the blogosphere as the next Google killer. But unless Cuil (pronounced ‘cool’) can develop an ad platform to rival Google’s, Cuil will have a difficult time challenging the search giant.

The comparisons to Google (GOOG) were inevitable. Cuil was founded by several lead engineers from Google, including Anna Patterson, chief architect of the company’sTeraGoogle search index. Cuil also claims its search algorithm scans through 120 billion web pages - three times the number that Google sifts through. And Cuil’s spare start page is reminiscent of Google’s minimalist home page.

The launch of Cuil certainly raised eyebrows at Google. Though the company would not comment on Cuil’s launch, Google’s web search team stuck it to the small search startup on Monday with a blog post that begins, “We knew the web was big…We’ve known it for a long time.”

Cuil representatives did not return phone calls.

But what is so “COOL” about Cuil?  Does it do anything for me that Google doesn’t?  Our first experience playing with the new online tool wasn’t so impressive.  Here are some things that weren’t so “Cuil”:

• The search engine provides its own scroll bars, thus requiring the user to use 2 sets of scroll bars…very annoying and hard to manuever.
• The results are displayed in an odd columned format - not the usual 10 page listing display
• We noticed that pictures related to the results are not accurate…we are not sure why this is occurring
• When we searched “SABAsearch Blog”, numerous random listings appeared, which were nowhere close to our blog content.  I think it will take some time getting use to how the search engine operates and spits out listings…maybe provide a users’ manual?

BUT, we did find lots of good things about the site.  Here are some of them:

• Cuil doesn’t discriminate.  YOU could be on the first page of the results based on your contents.
• Cuil doesn’t monitor your usage and spit ads back at you.  Very clean and sleek.
• Pictures are a plus coupled with the listings..very nice
• Supposedly, it scours more websites than google, thus offering users more options. 

So what’s it gonna be for you?  Google or Cuil?  That is the question for the day…let us know your thoughts!

It doesn’t matter who you are, you need to be on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is the Facebook for professionals and is growing faster that you can ever imagine.   Generation 1.0 social networking sites like Facebook and Friendster have provided awesome opportunities and platforms for friends to connect, share pictures, post events, share videos and more.  Now, the social networking phenomena has given birth to professional networking sites such as Linkedin, which gives you the opportunity to network with professionals within your industry, or even branch out and connect to professionals who can be of benefit to your business or service.  And best of all, Linkedin can help you land your next job!

Linkedin allows you to import your entire email contacts list, and therefore enables you to quickly build your professional network.   We recommend you definitely spend the time necessary to fully build out your professional profile, as that is what recruiters and other professionals will be seeing about you.  Linkedin also allows you to post questions and ask for advice from other Linkedin members, who are usually very quick to respond.

South Asians are flocking to sites such as these becuase it allows us to quickly connect and find different opportunities for business and employment.  Linkedin currently hosts a very large South Asian population which spans from the US to India.  South Asians offer a unique opportunity to other users on Linkedin as they provide key insights into industry trends and business advice as they relate to the South Asian community.  Many users of the Linkedin website turn to South Asian business leaders for creative advice on how to tap into a South Asian market.  Advice that turns out to be very useful and valuable for many.

If you would like to visit the Linkedin website, or learn more about it, click the link below:

Visit Linkedin!

P.S.  Want to join SABAsearch.com’s LinkedIn networking group?  If you would like to be a part of our Linkedin networking group, please shoot us an email at Support@SABAsearch.com or look for us on Linkedin under the name “SABAsearch.com - South Asian Businesses of America”.  Enjoy! 

I’m sure a lot of you do this. Surf the web while at work…. during your lunch hour of course! But what do you do when there’s nothing interesting. Outside of the SABAsearch blog, I check out msn.com and yahoo just to read up on things while I eat my lunch. But some days are better than others. For example the only thing that remotely caught my eye was an article about Ashlee Simpson being pregnant. I, unfortunately, started reading only to discover that I don’t really care! What are some sites that ya’ll visit while surfing the web? Maybe I can add another to my favorites…