Yahoo has picked up a dizzying number of startups since its Tumblr acquisition in May 2013, and today it added one more with Zofari. The startup currently offers an Android and iOS app that helps you find new spots to explore. Part of the experience is what Zofari describes as “Pandora for places,” which offers personalized collections of venues and businesses that align with your tastes. As you move around, the location “stations” change to reflect the different restaurants, bars or places of interest in the area.
Another acquisition for Yahoo, this one focused on improving the company’s local search capabilities: it has bought Zofari, a local recommendation app that uses machine learning, natural language processing and third-party data from sources like Foursquare to extract information that matches you the user up with places you might enjoy visiting. Or, as we described them last year, a “Pandora for places.” Yet, while Zofari may be all about discovery, this acquisition has completely flown under the radar: the deal was actually announced last week but it seems like no one really noticed. (A sign, perhaps, of how commonplace Yahoo tuck-in acquisitions have become.) Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed but in a blog post on Zofari’s site, the company’s four employees — Nate Weinstein, Jason Kobilka, Shahzad Aziz and Oliver Su — say they will be joining Yahoo.
