Google has confirmed that it is preparing a service called “Google Offers,” designed to compete with the popular social buying site Groupon.
Google has told Search Engine Land:
Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.Late last year, every tech followers were aware that Google bid their price to buy the small tech site Groupon which "features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in more than 300 markets and 35 countries, and soon beyond (read: Space). We have about 1,000 people working in our Chicago headquarters, a growing office in Palo Alto, CA, as well as regional offices in Europe and Latin America and local account executives in many cities."
That's how big players like Google do. If they found a huge market on a certain product/website they eventually offers to buy it and if they fail they counter it with another product. For instance, Google also failed to buy Friendster long time ago.
In the search market, no doubt, Google is the leading brand of all the competing websites. When
