
What will Google offer? - thankuz
https://www.google.com/offers/
======
thecoffman
Since the failure of Wave, does it seem to anyone else the Google has been
copying rather than innovating nowadays? Buzz was a copy of Twitter, this is a
copy of Groupon, +1 is a copy of Facebook's like button etc...

I'd like to see more innovation and less parroting coming out of them. I don't
want my search results to be social - I want them to be relevant and spam
free. If they really feel like going "social" is the way to deliver those
results, then cool - go with it - but don't just copy what another company is
doing. Personally I feel like they're good at algorithmic and engineering
solutions to problems and not good at social - why not stick with what you
excel at?

~~~
ignifero
Agreed, but this one seems to be the perfect fit with google places and
checkout. It's not great to see a Goliath taking on smaller competitors, but
the truth is that Groupon hasn't innovated much since it launched.

~~~
cookiecaper
Remember that Google first attempted to acquire the "smaller competitor" and
its offer was declined. Should Google just restrict itself not to compete in
any space where there is a "smaller competitor"?

------
rednum
The back button in my browser is broken on this site. I know it doesn't matter
for the product itself, but it's one of these little annoying things that
leave me with slightly negative - instead of totally neutral - impression.

~~~
thankuz
For a company that boasts so much about 'eating their own dog food,' it seems
like a lot of things like that get overlooked on most of their new products. I
used to call them out all the time on being hypocrites about a lot of the
Webmaster / SEO rules they preached and didn't follow on their own domains
(ie. canonical URLs, 301 redirects, sloppy URLs, etc.)

------
ry0ohki
All the people saying this will "kill" Groupon in some way are missing the
fact that couponing is very far from a zero sum game. Customers are not brand
loyal to coupon sites, as it's essentially free money, if Google Offers took
off, then people would use BOTH Groupon and Google Offers. The only thing all
these couponing sites will kill is the margins that restaurants have.

(Also, did anyone else think the subject meant what would Google offer salary-
wise to not leave for Facebook? ;))

~~~
ChuckMcM
I too thought it would be a parody site of enter your salary and then some
Javascript would add 25% to it and add a 4x of it as a 'retention' bonus
package of shares. :-)

But I also had to upvote this "its not a zero sum game" aspect of this
comment. Just like two 7-11's diagonally across from each other at a busy
intersection can (or a circle-K across from a 7-11 etc) can make money there
is a huge amount of squish around what constitutes a 'saturated' coupon
market.

Google could win just by virtue of the fact that they integrate better with
their own properties. That is why I felt Groupon turning down their $6B bid
was not particularly wise. We'll see of course, its clear this process is
going to complete the full cycle.

------
spontaneus
It's fine that Google is late in to group buying, but the problem is they
aren't going to be able to do it any better than Groupon or Living Social so
people aren't going to care. As other said, Google killed it with Gmail and it
was far better than any other mail service, but how much better can they make
50% off coupons?

~~~
jshen
They don't have to be better if it comes installed on new android phones.

~~~
spontaneus
Wasn't buzz going to kill twitter too because you don't have to leave your
inbox?

~~~
jshen
yeah, but I don't think it's analogous. First, buzz is only useful if your
friends are using it too. This isn't true for coupons. Second, there will be a
whole lot of non tech savy people that will buy an android phone and click the
big icon that says "coupons". I think this is a very different demographic
with a much lower barrier for a new user to find it useful.

~~~
spontaneus
Should be interesting longterm to see how this coupon craze plays out. My mom
figured out Groupon, but has no clue what a smartphone is so Google may be a
little ahead of the curve for part of the demographic they are after.

------
f1gm3nt
Goodbye Groupon?

This is going to get interesting. I can see this getting pushed to Android
phones, with the option of getting a notification for one shot deals within
you location. Pretty sure the Groupon guys are rethinking the offer they
turned down.

~~~
sandipc
Yeah, this would seem to work really well with the recent Latitude auto-
checkin support on Android

------
Jcasc
I would personally use this over Groupon. Especially if it integrates well
with all the current Google services I use. I'm sure Groupon is a bit uneasy
about this one.

------
ameyamk
question is, is google willing to put salespeople, and build organization
which is by nature very 'high touch' business? Putting a shiny offers page is
one thing, and following up with the daily deal strategy is another...

~~~
klous
They already have a small army of salespeople pushing their ad network to SMB.
Extending their salespeople's product line to include 'offers' wouldn't be a
huge stretch.

~~~
Andrew_Quentin
Sure would. They're totally different things.

In one, google was the first, the inventor if you like, and gathered the
customer base slowly, in the other, they have competition, are late to the
game, and probably besides tech savy people who read hacker news or other tech
magazines very few people would know that Google Offers even exists without
some massive ad campaign.

------
eddieplan9
It breaks my back button! And it's from Google, the best web company?

------
pkulak
I'm just hoping that Google won't bend the merchants over quite like Groupon
does. A 50% commission seems ridiculous. Hopefully the competition can push
that number down.

------
rohanprabhu
Not another groupon clone please...

~~~
hugh3
Not just another one -- the Groupon clone to end all Groupon clones.

And I mean that literally. Once Google enters the game, who else will bother?
Either

a) Google will lose against Groupon, proving that it's impossible to dislodge
Groupon, or

b) Google will win against Groupon, in which case you'd be crazy to take on
Google

David can sometimes beat Goliath, but if King Kong shows up to the fight as
well then David should probably just go home.

~~~
ry0ohki
Maybe if it were Apple these would be the only two options. Unfortunately
Google does a lot of "half ass" launches. By that I mean they release a
product that is the "Google version" of something else that is out there. But
they do no marketing, so unless it's amazing like Gmail or Chrome the most
likely option is what happens to most things Google clones:

c) Google launches, and some people use it... but not enough to make a dent in
Groupon, but just enough people to justify running the service

~~~
zandorg
I saw a big billboard ad for the Chrome browser on a UK motorway a couple of
months ago. I was very surprised, at least until I saw an IE9 billboard in a
petrol ('gas') station the other day.

~~~
hugh3
As far as I know, Chrome is the only google product that has _ever_ been
advertised. (Y'know, outside google's own ad network.)

------
marcamillion
Wow.....talk about a shot across the bow.

Let the games/war begin.

Is it just me or is Google going to war with too many people ?

------
27182818284
Lots of inertia to overcome. Google Offers has six options to choose from
compared to Groupon's long list of cities and presence in India.
(<http://www.sosasta.com/startup.php>)

------
itswindy
What will Google offer?

More 'me too,' products, more Walmartization of SERPS to kill the small guys
and a sliding stock price.

------
alanh
Really original branding.

<http://www.sellit.com/pages/default> <http://www.bestbuy.com/>

------
ignifero
Sorry, Groupon, it's not like you didn't have a buyout chance.

(does this sound coming from the future?)

~~~
dstein
I think you've got that backwards. Google are the ones who will probably
regret lowballing Groupon. Google's track record in social anything is
abysmal. What makes this half-assed attempt any different?

What Google's entry into this market means is that it will basically kill off
any other Groupon clones, and merely solidify Groupon and Living Social's
dominance.

~~~
TruthElixirX
This isn't social in the same sense as their past failures were though.
Orkrut, Buzz, etc all relied on your friends also using those services. Crowd
sourced coupons don't have this holding them up.

------
erik_p
I just made the embarrassing mistake of verbally telling my co-workers to
visit google.com "whack" offers (instead of saying forward slash or just slash
)

~~~
erik_p
wow, AWS goes down and everyone loses their sense of humor :( (or do people
not use "whack" on the west coast as slang for forward slash?)

~~~
count
Humor isn't typically upvoted on HN. Keep it on reddit, please.

