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In January 2009, Chemistry World reported a Royal Society of Chemistry–ChemZoo collaboration aimed at making chemical structures easier to find across the web. Its proposed free resolver would accept an InChI and return a shorter InChIKey; researchers were also expected to be able to search for and deposit structures through ChemSpider. The resolver and a March beta demonstration were plans reported at the time, not confirmed launches.
Why chemical identifiers mattered to the web
A chemical structure can be represented as a machine-readable identifier rather than relying only on a name, which may vary across sources. InChI—short for International Chemical Identifier—is generated algorithmically from a chemical structure. The identifier was developed by IUPAC with NIST, with the aim of giving databases and other web resources a shared way to refer to structures. Chemistry World described the 2009 effort as a way to make related chemical information easier to discover and link online. Chemistry World’s 2009 report covers the announcement.
InChI and InChIKey are related, but they are not interchangeable names for the same string. InChI is a layered line notation derived from a structure; an InChIKey is a shorter hashed form designed to be more convenient for web searching. A 2014 account from the ACS Division of Chemical Information discusses the role of InChI and InChIKey in searching, while NCBI’s 2026 Assay Guidance Manual lists InChI and SMILES among text codes used to document molecular structures. These references explain terminology; they do not establish present-day resolver availability or database coverage. NCBI Assay Guidance Manual.
What RSC and ChemZoo proposed
The collaboration between the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and US-based ChemZoo, associated with ChemSpider, was announced in December 2008. As described in the January 2009 report, the planned resolver would take an InChI and return its shorter InChIKey. The report also described plans for researchers to search for and deposit structures through ChemSpider. It anticipated a beta demonstration in March, but that was a forecast, not evidence that the demonstration or resolver went live.
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The proposal treated a public identifier and a service for using it as complementary parts of discovery: the identifier could help match a structure across resources, while a resolver could make that identifier useful in web searches. RSC informatics manager Richard Kidd said at the time, “The lack of an open chemical identifier and service to use it is a real barrier to the development of shared chemical resources across the Web”. That is Kidd’s contemporaneous explanation of the project’s motivation, not a claim about current consensus.
Open identifiers and curated registries served different roles
The report framed open InChI-based discovery alongside Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a large proprietary registry. The distinction was not simply free versus paid: an open identifier could help connect distributed resources, while a curated registry could provide controlled indexing and information not necessarily available elsewhere. The article recorded disagreement about whether broader open searching might disrupt CAS and noted that some publishers were adopting InChI. It did not show that InChI replaced CAS or that the proposed service became a definitive alternative.
| Approach in the 2009 report | Access and discovery | Curation and data scope |
|---|---|---|
| Open InChI identifier and proposed resolver | Public identifier intended to help link and search across web resources; the resolver was described as forthcoming. | Identifier infrastructure could connect information held in different sources; the report did not establish that it provided CAS-style curation or complete coverage. |
| CAS registry | Proprietary registry, rather than an open identifier service. | Described by the report as curated and containing information unavailable elsewhere; access and curation were part of its value. |
The scale figures in the report are historical snapshots, not current totals. Chemistry World said in 2009 that ChemSpider hosted over 21 million structures drawn from some 150 databases. The same report described CAS as holding about 40 million organic and inorganic substances. It also reported that ACS generated roughly $250 million from CAS in 2007. These figures retain their original attribution and dates; they should not be read as independently verified present-day counts or revenue.
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What the story establishes—and what it does not
- Established by the contemporaneous account: RSC and ChemZoo announced a collaboration; the resolver, ChemSpider search and deposit features, and a March beta demonstration were described as plans.
- Not established: whether that beta or resolver launched, whether a successor service exists, or whether any such resolver works now.
- Not established as current: ChemSpider or CAS database totals, current InChI versions, and present adoption levels.
- Not claimed: that InChI would replace CAS. The article presented open linking and proprietary curation as distinct approaches and captured debate about their relationship.
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