Yahoo buys social web browser maker Rockmelt

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo has acquired Rockmelt, a Silicon Valley startup that built a Web browser tied to Facebook’s social network.

Terms of the deal announced on Friday weren’t disclosed. It’s the 20th acquisition that Yahoo Inc. has completed since Marissa Mayer became the Sunnyvale, California, company’s CEO nearly 13 months ago.

Most of the purchases have been for relatively small amounts of money. There has been one notable exception so far: Yahoo’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Intern blogging service Tumblr.

Rockmelt unveiled its Facebook-focused Web browser in late 2010, but it never gained traction. The Mountain View, California, startup later introduced a version designed for smartphones and tablets.

Some of that technology could help Yahoo in its effort to bring in more traffic and revenue from mobile devices.