Yahoo sets up India development center

IDG News Service - Yahoo Inc. has set up a software development center in India that will focus on the development of products and technologies to be deployed by Yahoo's Web sites worldwide.
The center in Bangalore, the first research and development center set up outside the U.S. by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, is expected to have 150 engineers by the end of next year. Some product development work has already begun at the center.
"The decision to set up this center in Bangalore was based on our need to scale our software R&D efforts, and also tap into the large English-speaking and technically competent talent pool in India," said Venkat Panchapakesan, CEO of Yahoo Software Development India Pvt. Ltd., Yahoo's new software development subsidiary in Bangalore.
"Yahoo is also taking a global approach to product innovation and support," said Panchapakesan. "Until now, we were sitting in the U.S. and planning products and services for other countries. The India center will help us better understand other cultures and countries and develop appropriate products and services."
Besides developing new products, the Bangalore center will also customize current Yahoo products for use in various countries. The center will also offer round-the-clock support on premium services offered by Yahoo.
The Bangalore center will focus on technology and product development in a variety of areas: data mining and data engineering for handling terabytes of data, e-commerce applications, search algorithms that improve the relevance of Yahoo's search engine, enhancements to the HotJobs platform for online recruitment, network services and enterprise portal software development, said Bharat Vijay, the center's chief operating officer.