SPACE WIRE
Google to expand research and development into Europe: VP
ZURICH (AFP) Jan 28, 2004
The US-based Internet search specialist Google will soon open a research and development centre in Switzerland to tap into European knowhow, company vice-president Urs Hoelzle said in a newspaper interview Wednesday.

The European centre will be Google's second base outside the United States. A similar research and development centre in India is due to open in March.

"Zurich must be seen as a European location and we will bring the best computer specialists in Europe to Zurich," Hoelzle said in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

"Since many of these people don't want to work in the United States, we'll come to them in Europe," he added.

The Google executive said the centre would concentrate on software development, with a special emphasis on foreign language processing.

California-based Google, whose quirky name has become synonymous with online searches, has 21 sales offices around the world.

In just five years it has become one of the world's most recognized brand names.

To shore up its competitiveness, Google is reportedly considering an initial public offering next year that could catapult the firm into the ranks of the Internet giants.

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