Yahoo shows mobile ambitions with acquisition of location discovery app Alike

Yahoo took a big step toward making its mobile experience better by acquiring location discovery app Alike today.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has indicated that she would focus more efforts on mobile and wouldn’t hesitate to acquire companies to help with that aim. Yahoo acquired Snip.it in January and acquired the team behind video platform OnTheAir in December. Yahoo has also boosted its mail apps on mobile with new iPhone, Android, and Windows 8 apps.

Alike offered consumers ways to find nearby places that your friends also like and that you might like based on your interests. It will shut down its iPhone and web applications and join Yahoo’s mobile team.

The Alike team writes about the acquisition on its now-defunct home page:

At Alike, we’ve spent the last couple of years working hard to build amazing mobile experiences to delight our customers, which is why we’re thrilled to announce some big news: we’re joining Yahoo! Mobile. We’ve always been passionate about the growing power of intelligent mobile experiences. We believe that distilled information, deeply personalized and made accessible anytime and anywhere, is what makes mobile experiences a part of our customers’ daily lives. In Yahoo! we’ve found a team as excited about this vision as we are, and who are serious about making it real. We’re super excited to join Yahoo!’s mobile team, where we can march toward that vision faster than ever. As of today, we will no longer support the Alike Nearby iPhone and Web apps. Thank you to all our customers, partners, investors, and advisors who’ve supported us from day one! We’ve taken a big step on our journey, and we could not have done it without your support.

Yahoo sign photo via Flickr