cuil
Latest
Google pads IP portfolio, purchases Cuil's pending search-related patent applications
Google's been buying a fair amount of IP over the past several months from IBM, and now the Big G has acquired seven new patent applications from the now-defunct search engine, Cuil. Back in 2008, Cuil aimed to take Google's crown as the king of search, but was shut down 2010 because it often failed to provide relevant results (despite its massive site index). Good thing the patent apps Google's gotten are for different methods of displaying search results, as opposed to, you know, finding them. The full list of assignments can be found at the source below, so head on down to get your fill of patent claims and black and white drawings.
Munster: Apple developing a search engine
The great prognosticator Gene Munster (who spends his days working as an analyst at Piper Jaffray) has another guess at Apple's future for us: a search engine. He says there's a 70% chance that Apple will create its own search engine within the next five years -- right after that HDTV that he predicted a little while back. Obviously, putting together a search engine is a big undertaking, and once again, it seems unlikely that Apple would want to put one little toe into such a crowded pool. However, Munster's got that covered; he says that, instead of building from scratch, Apple might use some of its huge pool of cash to buy an existing database like Cuil. While that seems unlikely as well, it does make a little bit of sense. If Apple and Google really are on the rocks (sit-down between Jobs and Schmidt notwithstanding), Apple is probably looking at strategies to extricate itself from Google's search grip.
