
Google's Groupon Competitor Goes Live - stevederico
http://mashable.com/2011/04/21/google-offers-goes-live/
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wmeredith
Is there some unwritten rule that Google has to expand into all areas of the
web? It's a tall order that they can't possibly fill. (Buzz et all have proven
that.)

Why do they need to compete with Groupon? Why don't they just make search kick
more ass? (And no I don't mean clutter it up with more knobs/switches and
social bullshit. I mean win the war against the SEO gamers.)

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noelchurchill
Google is going to partly win the war against SEO gamers by integrating
"social bullshit."

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redorb
HBgary's social networking software; might be a counter to that argument. If
they use social as a major signal SEO's will start making fake social signs as
they did with fake link signals (buy / build them)

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aginn
Google won't be able to break into the market. They are late to the game. Has
anyone heard anything about Facebook Offers? Google is good at three things:
acquiring startups, email, and search.

It is like Google has ADD.

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jcampbell1
Breaking into this market just requires plastering the internet with display
ads, a TV ad or two, and a few deals that are too good to be true (think $20
amazon gift card for $10). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to get people to
signup for email coupons. It takes cash to buy the ads, and with $36B, google
has no shortage of that.

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rishi
Also - Groupon spends a ton of cash on Adwords to acquire subscribers. Google
can easily just "out bid" those with their own ads for free.

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drivebyacct2
Is Google known to use AdWords in this manner?

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jcampbell1
No, the Offers team will have a marketing budget and bid through adwords just
like everyone else.

Google has promoted their own products on their own sites outside the ad
system in the past, but they got a bunch of greif for it. There is a Chrome ad
on the homepage today that targets old IE browsers, but that is the only
exception I am aware of.

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rokhayakebe
Google and Groupon are going to end up together. In court.

