Burkov

Google is opening a research and development center in Moscow this year, reports Computerworld Russia (via MarketingPilgrim). Sergei Burkov, a former CEO of internet search company Dulance, which Google has acquired, will run the center. Rumors about Google's R&D activity in Russia have been circulating since last year.

Burkov is a former research physicist who moved to the U.S. from Russia in 1990 and has worked at both Cornell and the University of Wisconsin and cofounded three companies, with Dulance his latest project. It is a search and price comparison engine for goods sold online - similar to Froogle, but using a different approach.

Dulance harvests data such as names, descriptions and prices of the goods from websites, whereas for Froogle merchants manually upload specifically formatted data.