WASHINGTON — An engineering search engine is launching a supplier index tailored to engineers that is designed to measure online demand for technical data on electronic components.

Search engine provider SupplyFrame (Pasadena, Calif.) said its quarterly index measures global online demand for electronic product information, gauging the success of online marketing efforts by component manufacturers and demand for their products.

"This project started a year ago when we began studying online activity for our own content and marketing efforts," said SupplyFrame CEO and founder Steve Flagg. "We found that our customers were also struggling to understand what engineers were searching for."

The index combines a proprietary algorithm with data collected on millions of components during the first quarter of 2008 from search engines used by engineers. SupplyFrame said the index helps component suppliers understand how much traffic their product Web sites are generating.

With product design teams often spread over many time zones, Flagg said the index accounts for product searches by engineers in Asia, Europe as well as North and South America. "We are measuring Web activity across the globe 24/7," Flagg said. "As long as engineers are using the net for their research, we are accounting for them."