Seems that we're not the only ones to take issue with Cuil. Eric Chabrow, a writer for CIO Insight, says the same thing. Seems like there's a lot of hype and spin for the engine, and though it shows promise, it's far from Google-Killer status.

Let's set the stage:

a) Google buys technology from budding entrepreneur

b) Entrepreneur leaves Google

c) Entrepreneur launches competitive search service.

Sound familiar? Yesterday, Anna Patterson and a team of ex-Googlers launched Cuil (pronounced Cool), the latest in a line of Google-killer search services. The latest numbers from the Cuil team indicate they have over 120 billion pages indexed. But apparently, the 120 billion pages don't include our site (click that link for a Cuil search on Azul 7). Hey Cuil - with so many pages, couldn't you find space for our site? We have good search engine love from the other big boys - where's the love from you? I'm in to page 4 of the results set, and I'm not seeing anything…yet. See an article on CNN announcing the Cuil launch.

Anheuser-Busch sold to Belgian beverage giant InBev for $52B. Diese Bud is für Sie (This Bud's for you).

(click the image to start the presentation. Quicktime is required. You can download Quicktime here)

This presentation was given to LifeScience Alley on Thursday, June 26 2008. It was a great opportunity for us to talk with those in attendance about Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Advertising, and how these strategies influence the biomedical marketplace. You can also download the presentation in Powerpoint or PDF format.

(click the image to start the presentation. Quicktime is required. You can download Quicktime here) This presentation was given to IABC on Thursday, May 8 2008. It was a great opportunity for us to talk with those in attendance about Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Advertising, and how these strategies integrate with overall marketing strategies. You can also download the presentation in Powerpoint or PDF format.

YouTube launched YouTube Insight earlier this week. It's a free tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the videos they upload to the site. This means that uploaders (creatives, producers, directors, and aspiring Steven Spielberg's) can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in a market at any given time. Apparently YouTube has been gathering this data for some time now, as even videos that were uploaded last year have viewing statistics and geographic data attached. This is a big move for Google, YouTube's parent company. Ever since they purchased the video giant for a gazillion dollars last year, people have been wondering how they're going to make money off the deal. Sure, there's Adwords, but that clearly wasn't enough to support the infrastructure costs and bandwidth needs of the online video behemoth. YouTube Insight sets the stage for Google to really provide tangible services for big agency creatives and big media alike. It answers the question all the analysts were wondering - how is Google going to make money off online video? By offering analytics data around who's viewing what videos and where they're at, media producers will now be able to utilize this service as a testing platform for ideas and strategies before forking over enormous amounts of $$ to traditional media outlets. Creative types will likely flock to this service and will pay for insight into what users are watching their ideas on the small screen to flesh out what works and what doesn't. See the story @ The YouTube Blog

Is MSNBC running Apache? While browsing the popular news site for more tidbits on the big game today, I came across this screenshot (at about 2:45PM CST on 2/3). Of course, it could've been faked, but I assure you it wasn't. A quick test on Netcraft revealed the site had been running IIS 6.0 as of October 2007. A hoax? Or maybe they're ramping up capacity in preparation for the Super Bowl. Then again, maybe this is old news…

Little more than a month after removing their shows from iTunes, NBC appears ready to kiss and make up with Apple and return their lineup to the iTunes Music Store. No NBC shows are on the store yet, but it seems that this would be forthcoming with the 2nd half of the TV season about to start. This could've been a negotiating tactic, but I wouldn't be surprised if NBC relented seeing as how Jobs was able to strike a deal with all the major movie studios, not to mention the enormous success of the iPhone. Read the original article on TechCrunch.

With Apple's release of MacBook Air, has cloud computing finally gone mainstream? Cloud computing, or where computing is moved from personal computers to an application server or a collection ("cloud") of computing resources, is a hot topic these days. Amazon made waves with its EC2 and S3 services, and Google's been in the news this past year with its Google File System. But up until the MacBook Air, the closest "cloud-like" devices available to the non-technical user were the Asus eeePC and gOS. And despite the tremendous progress that has been made on Linux distros in the areas of user interface design and technical ease of use, those devices are still on the fringes of comfort level for the average Joe. Let's be clear that none of these devices (including the MacBook Air) are true cloud machines. Those are more akin to the old style client/server model where absolutely everything is served up over the network (including the operating system). But the MacBook Air accomplishes something where eeePC, gOS, and other cloud-based, network-based, or hardware companies have failed. By removing the optical drive and putting more focus on wireless connectivity, Apple is slowly but surely on the path to challenge end-users' conceptions and comfort level of what the computing experience should be. No optical drive? No problem. Connect to unused resources on your network and load your apps from a shared optical drive. No hardline network? No problem. 802.11n gives lightning fast speed. Need backups? We're covered there, too. Automate and streamline with built-in network backups through Time Capsule. Most average users won't call it cloud computing, but that's really what it is. It's tapping into resources that are already available elsewhere on a network, and redirecting them to suit whatever task is at hand. Give Apple credit for once again bringing something mainstream that, much like music and video, was once solely relegated to the technologically inclined. We're not quite at true cloud computing yet, but the MacBook Air is the first step to bringing the flexibility and power of cloud computing to the mainstream.

At MacWorld this morning Steve Jobs announced the fabled "MacBook Air". We picked up early tidbits from the MacWorld blog. Here are some of the specs: - Crazy thin - ranging from 0.8-1.2" - Crazy light - less than 3 pounds - All wireless - Apple stuffed 802.11n inside this beauty - No optical drive - install Apps via CD through an application called "Remote Disk" - 80GB HD standard, 64GB solid state drive optional (should be great for battery life!!) - Full size, backlit keyboard, multi-touch mouse pad, and iSight camera The new MacBook Air ad is up on Apple.com: http://www.apple.com/macbookair/#ad