Date:01/12/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/01/stories/2005120102120400.htm

Back Amazon centre to focus on Web services, search

Our Bureau

Bangalore , Nov. 30

AMAZON.COM, the Web retailer that expanded into the search space last year, has inputs for its Web services and A9.com search engine coming out of its India centre.

The Amazon India Development Centre Managing Director, Mr Amit Agarwal, told Business Line that the Bangalore centre had full ownership of the products developed and had taken up two high impact areas for focus — Web services and search.

"We share resources and functionality invoked through servers on the Internet. This involves looking at atomic blocks of data, so that developers outside Amazon can use the technology to access product data and services, or develop software to help merchants that use Amazon's services,'' he said.

Amazon.com sellers, solution providers and integration providers can use Amazon Web services to enhance their scope and functionality, Mr Agarwal said, adding that the India centre was working on enabling these technologies and adding more functionality to them.

One such element of its charter is to look for innovative `organisations' of information that can be added to search results — for instance offering news and reviews about a product to improve the overall search experience.

Amazon had spent close to a billion dollars on R&D in the past decade, Mr Agarwal said.

He, however, declined to detail the India investments or headcount.

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