Comments on: Is the web making us illiterate? (Hello Cuil, er, Quill, er, Kool)

Does the web help reading or hinder it? No one seems to be sure.

[Just_A_Yenta]

"Lenore, get me my glasses, this is so STUPID".......(what? ....they're on the kitchen table...near the lottery tickets....bring them here, you have to see this ....this is SO SO STUPID, Lenore)...wait a minute....how do you pronounce C U L I?.HUH?.it?s COOLIE right?..no, then what is it Lenore (we calll her Just_A_Teacher, taught English Lit at Lehman College in New York)?.how do you get COOL from COOLIE?.I see COOLIE, well it looks like C U L I?..right?..no? It?s C U I L ??..what the hell is that? Looks like a tongue wants to vomit?.STUPID?IT IS NOT ?COOL??.it?s either COOLIE or SWILL, ???Lenore, bring over Harriet?look at this Harriet?..what do you see? Isn?t it COOLIE? PUT YOUR FRIGGIN? GLASSES ON?..just USE MINE?..what do you see? COOLIE RIGHT? OK?.now, let?s play Mah Jong. TTFN, from WW2, our British Allies, TA TA FOR NOW!

[Chris-Anderson]

I found this interesting article New Search Engine, www.Cuil.com, Finally Ready to Compete With Google.

[lofosho2]

It baffles me how truly ignorant this writer is. How ironic. Cuil is not a made up word. Cuil is Irish for knowledge. Something this writer should have used.

[dehall622]

where did he say it was a made up word?

[rabbit605]

First, I would have to agree with what's already been posted. Cuil is indeed a real word, and obviously they use it because it means knowledge and because it's cool that it's pronounced cool (sorry - had to point out the incredibly obvious double entendre.) Secondly, why is it that for one so informed on correct spellings he neglects to point out that Google is misspelled? It's supposed to be spelled G-O-O-G-O-L! Again, a real word which is the number 1 with a 100 zeros after it. Chosen by Google to imply the vast (but highly inaccurate) number of web pages in their search engine. Then again, the writer may have point - perhaps Google was chosen because we're just no good at spelling anymore.