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{{Short description|American technology services company}}
{{Infobox dot-com company
| name          = GlobalSpec
| logo          = GlobalSpec.png
| logo_caption  =
| logo_alt      = GlobalSpec logo
| founder       = John Schneiter, Thomas Brownell, Andrea Schneiter and Mark Gaulin
| industry      = [[Information technology]]
| services      = Software and technology services, vertical search
| revenue       = US$10–50 million
| url           = {{Official URL}}
| company_type  = [[Subsidiary]]
| foundation    = 1996
| location_city = [[Albany, New York]]
| key_people    = Lisa Paonessa, General Manager
| num_employees = 201–500<ref>{{cite web | title = GlobalSpec | work = Companies | publisher = LinkedIn Corporation | url = http://www.linkedin.com/companies/globalspec | access-date = 2008-12-26 | archive-date = 2009-05-10 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090510013808/http://www.linkedin.com/companies/globalspec | url-status = live }}</ref>
}}
'''GlobalSpec''' is a technology services company which provides a [[search engine]] of engineering and industrial products, indexing over 180 million parts divided into 2,300,000 product families, from over 24,000 [[manufacturing|manufacturer]] and [[distribution (business)|distributor]] [[parts book|catalog]]s.<ref name="bizjournals">{{cite web|title=GlobalSpec, Inc. |publisher=Bizjournals.com |url=http://albany.bizjournals.com/gen/company.html?gcode=1546971A79CF432E9DD4D14F0FB5361D |access-date=2008-12-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210080937/http://albany.bizjournals.com/gen/company.html?gcode=1546971A79CF432E9DD4D14F0FB5361D |archive-date=February 10, 2009 }}
</ref> GlobalSpec is a domain-specific (or "[[vertical search]]") tool, in that its focused domain allows for optimized results. Within product families, searches can be narrowed by selecting values for parameters that are specific to that product type.<ref>{{cite web
| last = Battelle
| first = John
| title = GlobalSpec: Domain Specific Search and the Semantic Web
| work = Searchblog
| date = March 30, 2004
| url = http://battellemedia.com/archives/000519.php
| access-date = 2008-12-26
| archive-date = 2008-12-03
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203180803/http://battellemedia.com/archives/000519.php
| url-status = live
}}</ref>
The website has over 8 million registered members, and as of 2009, membership was growing at a rate of 20,000 per week. In 2007, the company achieved 35% revenue growth, the sixth year in a row that the company achieved double-digit revenue growth.<ref name="devin">{{Cite news | last = Devin | first = Amber | title = GlobalSpec Achieves Record Results in 2007 | newspaper = Reuters | publisher = Business Wire | date = Jan 22, 2008 | url = https://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS159538+22-Jan-2008+BW20080122 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090508013658/http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS159538+22-Jan-2008+BW20080122 | url-status = dead | archive-date = May 8, 2009 | access-date = 2008-12-26 }}</ref> The website has approximately 1.3 unique million visitors a month with 2.8 million page views and an average of 4.9 minutes time spent.{{fact|date=February 2022}}{{when|date=February 2022}} GlobalSpec has partnerships with several well-known companies, including:
* [[AltaVista]]<ref>{{cite web
| last = D'Errico
| first = Richard A.
| title = GlobalSpec partners with AltaVista
| work = The Business Review
| publisher = American City Business Journals, Inc.
| date = August 7, 2001
| url = http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2001/08/06/daily18.html
| access-date = 2008-12-26
| archive-date = 2009-07-24
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090724211705/http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2001/08/06/daily18.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref>
* The [[International Society of Automation]] (ISA)<ref>{{cite web
| title = ISA Announces Partnership With GlobalSpec
| publisher = [[International Society of Automation]]
| date = October 25, 2005
| url = http://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Releases5&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=54507
| access-date = 2008-12-27
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090508061412/http://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Releases5&template=%2FContentManagement%2FContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=54507
| archive-date = May 8, 2009
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>
* [[McGraw-Hill]]
* [[Dassault Systèmes|Dassault Systemes]]<ref>{{cite web | title = SolidWorks Corporation embeds 'The Engineering Web' in 3D mechanical design software | publisher = SolidWorks Corporation | date = Feb 14, 2005 | url = http://www.solidworks.com/sw/news/245_article2004_2_ENU_HTML.htm | access-date = 2008-12-26 | archive-date = 2009-06-16 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090616032425/http://www.solidworks.com/sw/news/245_article2004_2_ENU_HTML.htm | url-status = live }}</ref>
SolidWorks which is a product of [[Dassault Systèmes]] has embedded access to GlobalSpec's search engine inside its [[computer-aided design]] software.
[[Warburg Pincus]] sold GlobalSpec to [[IHS Inc.|IHS]] in 2012 for $135 million.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-DLB-38672|title=IHS to Buy Engineering Site GlobalSpec From Warburg Pincus|website=Wall Street Journal|date=June 12, 2012}}</ref>
The IEEE acquired GlobalSpec from [[IHS Inc.|IHS]] in 2016.<ref>{{cite web | title = IEEE Acquires GlobalSpec and the Engineering360 Platform from IHS to Create Powerful New Resource for the Global Engineering Community | publisher = IEEE | date = April 29, 2016 | url = http://www.ieee.org/about/news/2016/29april_2016.html | access-date = 2016-04-29 | archive-date = 2016-04-30 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160430211622/http://www.ieee.org/about/news/2016/29april_2016.html | url-status = dead }}</ref>
GlobalSpec was acquired by Compare Networks Inc. on July 31, 2020.<ref>{{cite web | title = GlobalSpec acquired by San Francisco firm, renegotiates lease in SUNY Poly's ZEN Building | publisher = Albany Business Review | date = Sep 30, 2020 | url = https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2020/09/30/globalspec-acquired-san-francisco-compare-networks.html | access-date = 2021-02-17 | archive-date = 2020-11-26 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201126021812/https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2020/09/30/globalspec-acquired-san-francisco-compare-networks.html | url-status = live }}</ref>
==See also==
* [[List of search engines]]
* [[Vertical search]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Official website}}
* [http://cr4.globalspec.com CR4 The Engineer's Place for News and Discussion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924091054/http://cr4.globalspec.com/ |date=2011-09-24 }}
{{Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}}
[[Category:Internet properties established in 1996]]
[[Category:Domain-specific search engines]]
[[Category:Marketing companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Online companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Warburg Pincus companies]]