Yahoo said Tuesday that it is opening a new R&D lab in Haifa, Israel. Its new digs will be located in the same high-tech park where both Microsoft (MSFT) and Google’s (GOOG) Israeli research and development operations are located.

Yahoo (YHOO) has recently increased its business activities in Israel, inking a strategic deal with Israeli portal Walla and buying up a local online music startup called FoxyTunes last month. But the real motivation for opening a lab — its first in the region — is to use the country’s technological know-how to explore and develop new search and advertising technologies.

“The Yahoo Research Israel Lab, which opens today, will focus on boiling down complex technology problems into simple solutions to change the game in web search,” Yahoo said in a statement Tuesday.

The company opened another research lab in Bangalore, India, earlier this month.