Google (GOOG) gets some new competition

Going into the search business and targeting Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) must carry odds of success which are at least a million to one. But, the market is rich. Google has a market cap of over $150 billion. Even a little piece of that could make a start-up some money. That is if anyone wants another search option beyond Google, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), and a number of other services with tiny customers bases.

Some former Google engineers believe they can master their former master. According to The Wall Street Journal, "A startup founded by engineers from Google,Inc. and other tech giants is launching a search engine that claims to cover three times as many Web pages as Google."

The new service is called Cuil. Wish them luck.

Cuil's problem is deeper than is evidenced at first blush. Google not only controls over 60% of the US search market. It also probably indexes as much of the web as almost any user would need. Tripling the number of possible search results is not useful to the huge majority of search engine users.

Search usefulness is driven by the relevance of the results. Cuil has not demonstrated that it can out-Google Google on that front. If it cannot deliver that higher level of relevance, and deliver it by an order of magnitude much greater than the largest incumbent, it will not go anywhere.

In search, quality trumps quantity.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.