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Japan

Apr 7, 2005

Google opens R&D base in Tokyo

TOKYO - Internet search engine giant Google Inc has established a Research & Development base in Tokyo and begun hiring software engineers to develop search technologies and services oriented toward cell phones and broadband communications.

The Tokyo R&D center is Google's third such base outside the US, adding to those in India and Switzerland. Operating under the arm of Google's Japanese subsidiary, the Tokyo center will collaborate with Google's US R&D staff to develop technologies and services for the Japanese market. The center will also seek to collaborate with leading Japanese telecommunications companies and electronics makers.

Up until now, all Google technologies and services offered in Japan simply have been Japanese-language versions of its mainstay offerings. But Google determined that a local R&D effort was necessary, considering that Japanese is the third most common language used in Internet searches, following English and German.

Local R&D efforts will focus on technologies that can boost the precision of Japanese-language searches. In addition, the results will serve as a base from which to launch a Chinese-language service.

The Tokyo R&D center has already hired around 10 software engineers and may recruit as many as 100.

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei).

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