Several former Google engineers have today launched a search engine rival, which promises to provide users with greater control over their privacy.

Start-up Cuil, which goes live for public use today, hopes to compete with Google through the use of content-based relevance methods, organising search results by ideas and does not attempt to identify users nor record what they have searched for.

“Our significant breakthroughs in search technology have enabled us to index much more of the Internet, placing nearly the entire Web at the fingertips of every user," said Tom Costello, chief executive of Cuil.

Cuil – pronounced "cool" is run by Costello, a former search engine researcher at Stanford University, along with Anna Patterson and Russell Power, both former Google engineers.