| Software | Choices | Pros | Cons | Publisher's description | #1 choices | Must-Haves | People | Rating | License | HomePage | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #8 in Search Engine | Cuil—the world’s biggest search engine. A lot of Web services fizzle on launch. The "beta" label often provides a line of defense against launch hiccups. But every now and then companies overhype new products that simply aren't close to ready for prime-time launch. The two big winners of the Failure to Launch award for this Webware 100 are, clearly, Cuil and Mobile Me. Cuil as launched as a competitive search engine to Google, built by ex-Googlers. Early demos looked good, but when the site actually opened to the public, it was a flop. It wasn't that it just did not work, but rather that it gave results that were bizarre and wrong. Unlike most services that simply shut down when they get overloaded, Cuil kept on chugging. It shouldn't have. The site is a lot better now, but it may never recover from its embarrassing launch. | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 0 0 0 0 | Free | http://www.cuil.com | Web | ||
| #3 in Search Engine | Powerset is a natural language search engine. It's fair to say that Powerset has had a great 2008, having been acquired by Microsoft in July this year. Powerset's goal is to change the way people interact with technology by enabling computers to understand our language. While this is a difficult challenge, we believe that now is the right time to begin the journey. Powerset is first applying its natural language processing to search, aiming to improve the way we find information by unlocking the meaning encoded in ordinary human language. | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 0 0 0 0 | Free | http://www.powerset.com/ | Web |
