'No concrete plan' for Google server farm in Austria: spokeswoman

VIENNA (AFP) - Google has "no concrete plan" to build a new European server farm in the north of Austria, despite buying land there, the US Internet search engine giant said Saturday.

Elaborating on its announcement Thursday that it has acquired 75 hectares (185 acres) of real estate in Kronstorf village, near Linz city, a Google spokesman said the idea of a server farm was still just that -- an idea.

"We have bought a plot of land, but there is no concrete plan to build a centre," said the spokesman, Kay Oberbeck, in a statement. "We are still in the process of studying the possibilities and how they can be exploited."

Google said it picked Kronstorf over sites in a dozen European countries because it offered "very good conditions for building a centre".

Server farms house an array of powerful computers that handle requests for data from Internet users. They require a great deal of electricity to function, plus a constant supply of water to keep the computers cool.

Local officials said Google's investment would be worth tens of millions of euros. (yahoo.asia.news)