Microsoft says it’s going to open a Search Technology Center in Europe in the fiscal year that starts in July.

The center is supposed to “accelerate Microsoft’s investments in Live Search and disrupt the search and advertising marketplace to the benefit of both the consumer and the advertiser,” it said, “in line with Microsoft’s recent announcement in the US of Live Search cashback.”

The cashback scheme unveiled last month offers rebates for buying goods found with Microsoft’s Live search engine.

Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s Platform and Services Division, a survivor of the company’s negotiations with Yahoo, said in a canned statement that “today Microsoft has 68% 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. Success in search in Europe is paramount, and we see the investment in this new Search Technology Center as an important step in doubling down on our long-term investments.”

Microsoft didn’t say where it would put the new center – and indicated some workers could be virtual and in other countries like the UK, France and Germany – but it did buy Fast Search & Transfer in Norway recently. Of course Fast is enterprise-oriented but Microsoft has previously intimated that its work could used for a more generic Google-bucking search engine.

Microsoft has a similar center in Beijing. It wants search to be “locally relevant.”