It was back in October than my fascination with a start-up, then known as Cuill (with two l's) was planning to take on Google, or so it seemed. Some outright laughed. Others looked at who was behind it.
"Hey, this could be real?"
Many speculated that Cuill would be purchased even before it launched as their bot became more and more visible, indexing what appeared to be a huge volume of blogs and websites.
A few months ago, ex-Googler Louis Monier began to break the 'quiet' that had surrounded the start-up, addressing an SMX audience, as many of us read the live blogging and chatted later that evening.
As has been the case lately, my first clue that Cuill (ugh ... Cuil :) was about to launch came the other night on Friendfeed, as another ex-Googler and Friendfeed co-founder Paul Buchheit pointed to a Maksonland post.
A few hours ago, after almost a year in the 'dark', Cuill launched live, apparently losing an 'l' along the way, and now known as Cuil. Billing itself as the biggest search engine on the web, I seriously doubt too many people are going to argue with this roster of engineering and marketing 'pilots'.
The buzz on TechMeMe is already well underway (updated AM link).
Louis Gray has even provided a one click Cuil article search on Friendfeed where the discussion thread (along with mixed reviews) is growing.
Will Cuil be cool?
Way too early to tell, but fascinating to watch.
Update 3: Google Trends as of 10:45 ET has Cuil (and all of the various mis-spellings) in positions 2,4,6,13,18,24,33,47 :
edited (updated links) 1 PM ET