B2B News Week Part II - GlobalSpec changes

GlobalSpec seems to be doing what Yahoo recently did--downplay its directory of industrial suppliers and serve-up search engine results.

The pitch is that the search results are filtered for engineering-related sites and also finds the 'hidden' web pages that other search engines miss. My quick test showed relevant sites, but hard to distinguish from other search engines.

One wonders how this affects their existing clientele. In practice, their search box has a pull-down menu that you need to select 'the engineering web', otherwise you get their directory results. But when searching the 'engineering web', I expected a stronger pitch to use their directory or list their suppliers ala AdWords, but this wasn't the case.

The next logical step would be going to a PPC model for the search results. That's when I can afford (and justify) advertising with them.