The new Cuil search engine apparently got a bit more traffic than the team anticipated immediately after launch a couple of hours ago. Everyone is trying it out to decide for themselves how disruptive it may be to the old guard search guys. For now, you’ll have to wait, a message on the site says “We’ll be back soon…Due to overwhelming interest, our Cuil servers are running a bit hot right now. The search engine is momentarily unavailable as we add more capacity. Thanks for your patience.”

Launching a startup ain’t easy. And flatlining right after your launch is more of a rite of passage than an embarrassment. Here’s hoping Cuil is cool again by morning.

Update: Yay! It’s back.