Google to set up Tokyo research centre

Google announced at the Search Engine Strategies Conference currently underway in Tokyo that it is to set up a research base in the city's Shibuya district, home to the hive of ephemeral startups that formed the so-called Bit Valley during Japan's IT bubble, and centre (at least in the popular imagination) of all things techy in Tokyo. While there are many of Google's main services--News, Blogger, and Froogle, to name but three--that are not available in Japanese yet, the principal aim of the new centre is apparently to improve the quality of Google's Japanese-language search. Or that's what they claim; with Six Apart's TypePad gaining a foothold as the back end behind several Japanese ISPs' blogging services, now might be a prudent time to get into the rapidly expanding Japanese blogging universe.

[Via CNET Japan (Japanese)]