Former Google nerds Anna Patterson and her husband Tom Costello have created, what is being dubbed the newest and best search engin, Cuil (www.cuil.com).

Patterson and Costello were very influential in developing Google’s top rated search engine.

A holder of a computer science doctorate and mother of four, Patterson said search engines can’t keep up with the explosive growth of the Internet or with the needs of users, who often get frustrated sifting through random results. Cuil says it has come up with a search engine that indexes 120 billion Web pages, ranks results by relevance instead of popularity, organizes the results by ideas and protects the privacy of its users.

Cuil has what Patterson called a magazine layout, with tabs and images for subjects. It offers suggestions to assist in searches. And it does not collect personal data, so your search history is always private, she said. Advertising, to be added later, will be based on the content, not on people’s surfing habits.

My earlier test of Cuil leaves a lot to be desired. Just typing in the word ‘Bumpshack’ led to 12 other sites besides Bumpshack.com. But Patterson and Costello have mastered the search engine game before, so I won’t bet against them this early on in the infant steps of Cuil.

Cuil is pronounced ‘Cool’.

There currently isn’t any CUIL stock but if the SE explodes you can for sure expect an IPO down the road.