Facebook acquires and shutters shopping search engine TheFind

Facebook has acquired shopping search engine company TheFind, which announced the news on its website today.

Some people from TheFind have joined Facebook; TheFind’s search engine is going offline in the coming weeks.

“For the last nine years, we’ve worked hard to bring you a shopping experience that’s easy, efficient, and fun — searching all the stores on the web to find just the right products you’re looking to buy,” TheFind’s team wrote in a statement visible today on its homepage.

“We are now starting our next chapter by combining forces with Facebook to do even more for consumers. Facebook’s resources and platform give us the opportunity to scale our expertise in product sourcing to the over 1 billion people that use the platform.”

The focus here is improving ads on Facebook, according to the statement.

“Together, we believe we can make the Facebook ads experience even more relevant and better for consumers,” Facebook announced in its own statement on the deal.

TheFind started in 2006 and was based in Mountain View, Calif. That office is closing as key employees move to Facebook headquarters in nearby Menlo Park.

On Google Play Store, TheFind claims that 15 million shoppers use the service. Participating brands include Nike, Macy’s, and Target.

TheFind’s investors include Bain Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Redpoint Ventures. The company announced a $15 million round in 2007. The company had raised a total of $26 million, according to its page on CrunchBase.