I think a lot of people are eager to see someone encroach Google the way Google-circa-1998 threatened the then giants of its time. The fact they are ex-Google search employees implies they know what they are doing, so out of all the possible search engines Cuil seems the most promising.
But of course, the only real reason they all wrote about it was because the other guy was doing a story on them. How silly would they look in 5 years if they didn't cover the next Google?
The comments turned sharply negative once people had a chance to play with cuil. At the moment, the top story that comes up for 'cuil' on Google News is Time's front-page article trashing them.
I can understand the temptation to make a big splash, but they're following a familiar trajectory for aspiring search engines: overpromise, disappoint, disappear.
"... I still don't get it though - how come this startup got blanket coverage from tech news heavyweights, some of whom should know better than to buy into the hype? ..."
But of course, the only real reason they all wrote about it was because the other guy was doing a story on them. How silly would they look in 5 years if they didn't cover the next Google?