If Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) can’t buy a search business, then maybe it had better build a better one. And since it was in Europe for the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival today, it thought it might as well declare that it will open a Search Technology Centre (STC) “in Europe” with just that aim. An STC is an R&D hub designed to yield better search products. Microsoft already has one such facility in Beijing, opened in 2005, but there’s no location given yet for the European one, which will open in the fiscal year beginning next July 1.

“Today Microsoft has 68 percent reach to internet users throughout Europe through our online assets and strengths in display advertising; however, we’re not yet where we’d like to be in search in this critical geography,” said platforms and services division president Kevin Johnson. “Success in search in Europe is paramount, and we see the investment in this new Search Technology Centre as an important step in doubling down on our long-term investments.”

Indeed, Microsoft’s Live Search has a long way to go, trailing on two percent European search market share last time I asked comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) for statistics in January. Johnson said the centre will work with the Live Search team to develop “state-of-the-art” search tech that is nevertheless “locally relevant”. Release.

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