---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 10:25:35 +0530
From: Subbiah Arunachalam
March 29, 2004 - GlobalSpec, a specialized online resource for engineering,
has launched a new interface, added more powerful search functionality, and
has introduced a specialized search engine it is calling "The Engineering
Web," which it says provides "engineering context and relevancy" and access
to Hidden Web resources. The newly introduced engine searches more than
100,000 engineering and technical Web sites and provides searching of
specialized content the company says is not available on any other search
engine-application notes, patents, material properties, and standards.
In announcing the enhancements, Jeffrey M. Killeen, GlobalSpec chairman and
CEO said: "We have built the specialized search engine and content
repository for engineers and technical buyers-everything of relevance,
expertly classified and indexed in one place. In fact, we believe we have
built the definitive search platform for the engineering community."
John Schneiter, president and co-founder of GlobalSpec, said: "Extensive
research of our online community, as well as our own engineering
experiences, told us that engineers and technical professionals are
frustrated with general search engines and having to wade through pages of
irrelevant results. We have built what they asked us for-and what we frankly
wished we had ourselves as practicing engineering professionals-The
Engineering Search Engine."
The company's proprietary SpecSearch allows users to search by specification
more than 60 million parts in 1,000,000 product families from more than
10,000 supplier catalogs. GlobalSpec says it now has more than 1,000,000
registered users for SpecSearch (registration is free). Suppliers of the
catalogs pay annual fees to GlobalSpec so that searchers can discover these
products for free.
New with this launch is the ability to compare products in suppliers'
catalogs in tabular form and even compare specific parts across suppliers.
SpecSearch is proprietary technology that has been developed by GlobalSpec
over the last 8 years. Schneiter said that the company built its own
extensive taxonomy as well, and continues to expand it organically as
needed. The company also developed its own engine to
search "The Engineering Web," though the results page looks and feels very
similar to a results page at Google. However, a feature that offers
suggestions to "Refine your Results" presents terms and topics that are
generated on the fly from search results.
As a feature of The Engineering Web engine, users have the option of
searching specifically for information in companies' notes about their
applications. An application note is a document that describes the use of a
product, and may contain quite detailed information and drawings. It may
list detailed design specifications, as well as data describing how the
product functions in different situations and with different variables.
GlobalSpec uses an automatic text classification system to identify
candidate application notes from all of the sites identified for inclusion
in The Engineering Web.
To provide the other specialized content-patents, material properties, and
standards-from the Hidden Web, GlobalSpec has partnered with other content
companies. Abstracts of patents are available for free online and complete
documents are available for purchase from its partner, MicroPatent. Patent
information from the following sources are included:
- USPTO (U.S. Patent & Trademark Office): Granted patents from 1982 -
present; Applications from 2001 - present - EP (European Patent
Office): 1982 - present
- WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization): 1982 - present
Access to standards is available through a partnership with IHS (Information
Handling Services), which provides "the world's largest file" of active and
historical standards, specifications, drawings, handbooks, and related
technical documents. Users can search and see abstracts for free. Complete
copies of technical standards are available for purchase, as hardcopy or as
electronic downloads. IHS specializes in enterprise subscription sales, so
this represents an additional distribution network for its products.
Corporate customers of MicroPatent and IHS run the risk of their engineers
paying piecemeal to obtain patents or standards via GlobalSpec that the
company already has access to through enterprise subscriptions. GlobalSpec
admitted this could be an issue, with companies paying twice for the same
information when employees were unaware of available resources. But,
thinking on the spot, Killeen said it was conceivable they could work with
their partners to get the ISP addresses of customers and then send a notice
if this was about to occur.
GlobalSpec users can also search and get free abstracts of material property
information for industrial materials, specifying attributes such as flexural
modulus, flexural strength, hardness, density, deflection temperature,
electrical resistivity, conductivity, heat capacity, etc. for any given
material. The full text can be accessed for free by clicking a link over to
the MatWeb site (http://www.matweb.com). MatWeb is a free searchable
database designed by engineers. (The advanced features and tools on its site
are available to those who register and to Premium users, who have full
access for $49.95.). Killeen said GlobalSpec plans to add
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to the site sometime in the second
quarter of 2004. The company is also in active discussions with key
engineering publishers to add full-text journal content. Many technical
articles, tutorials, and white papers are now included in the section of the
site called "Tools & Useful Links," which also offers research and reference
links, calculators, and links to other engineering and technical sites.
GlobalSpec, founded in 1996, is a privately-held company with about 130
employees based in Troy, New York (near Albany). While GlobalSpec's
management feels that its search platform really has no competition,
engineering professionals will continue to use other complementary resources
as well. Engineering Village 2 provides comprehensive database searching and
linking to full text, for example. Other sites, such as Engineering.com
(which offers software, services, news, directories, etc.) will continue to
fill a niche as well. Scirus, the science-only search engine includes
engineering as a subject. But, given the accelerating rate of new user
registrations on GlobalSpec, the growth in numbers of searchable parts, and
the number of online visitors to the site, the company is obviously filling
a need in the engineering community and has found a business model that is
working.
