AMID INNOVATORS: Yahoo co-founder David Filo with engineers of the Bangalore development centre.

Bangalore: He came to meet members of his 800-strong India-based research and development teams.

He saw for himself dozens of `cool' innovations they had lined up for him.

He concurred with all who had come before: The company ``just had to tap into the great talent on display here.''

David Filo, who co-founded Yahoo, one of the Internet's most visited portals and the name that 85 per cent of Indian users have as part of their e-mail identity, spent just three days in Bangalore on his visit last week — and to attend an in-house ``showcase'' of desi talent.

He sat through over 15 presentations by groups of 60 to 70 Indian engineers on `cool' ideas to enhance the Yahoo web services: New travel portals, a `hot jobs' site, a Web-based `mandi' or marketplace — and some socially relevant content. These reminded the ``Chief Yahoo!,'' as he is called, that even commercially-driven enterprises can serve a larger purpose.

``Main brains trust''

The India-based development centre is a major brains trust for Yahoo, Mr. Filo told The Hindu . Groups are working on advanced algorithms — the mathematical formulae that ensure that what users find in a search on the Web is as close as possible to what they seek. New variants like ``My Web'' are aimed at localising content so that results are consistent with who you are and where you live.

Venkat Panchapakesan, CEO of Yahoo Software Development India, added that the company's engineers here had lined up over 20 international patents in the first six months of this year alone.

Would any of the ideas thrown up by the India teams end up as compelling Yahoo products one day? At the end of his whirlwind tour, Mr. Filo had made a lot of notes — and was determined that `Rang de India' — the name

one group gave to its presentation, echoing a popular Hindi film title — would almost certainly `colour' Yahoo's global offerings in the months ahead.

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