GOOGLE opened its research and development center in Shanghai yesterday to expand its R&D capacity and catch up with rival Baidu.com in the market. The center will focus on advertising tools and applications, said Google.

The new center will coordinate with Google's two R&D centers in Beijing and Taipei. It is headed by Wang Jin, former eBay China's chief technology officer, and Yang Wenluo, former Intel Corp's Asia Pacific R&D center general manager. No figure on the facility's investment and number of researchers was disclosed.