Google Offers is currently serving New York, Portland, Oakland and San Fran. But Washington, DC, Boston, Austin, Denver and Seattle are next to get this service. Of coure, I signed up to get notified of the Washington, DC roll out.
So what is Google Offers? Apparently, the same thing as Groupon and LivingSocial; except it’s Google and just because of that I’ll try it out. I admit I drank the Google juice a long time ago and I’m quite bias. From looking at their ‘How Google Offers works’ page, I don’t see anything different from what Groupon and LivingSocial already offer.
1. You sign up for the service to receive daily emails with deals in your area (same with Groupon and LivingSocial)
2. You purchase the deal and they email you a confirmation (same with Groupon and LivingSocial)
3. You print out the confirmation or show the vendor your confirmation from your mobile phone. (I’m not sure if Groupon and LivingSocial allow you to show the confirmation from your mobile phone or not.)
4. Share daily deals with friends, colleagues and family. (You and share Groupon deals with others from within the app)
This ‘Look Inside’ feature may be different. You can view images of the best places to eat, shop, and play. Since it’s Google, I expect it to integrate seamlessly with Google Maps (to get directions to the venue I’ve just purchases a deal from), Google Voice (to call said venue), Google Calendar (to add the deal date to my calednar) and probably Picasa (to view photos of the venue – although I don’t use Picasa).
There is no mention of an app, but I can’t imagine there not being an Google Offers app. So, there doesn’t appear to be anything different from Groupon and Living Social in Google Offers, but it is Google, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Except for you New Yorkers and San Fran folks who get everything first. Let me know how you like and compare Google Offers with Groupon and LivingSocial….
Will you give Google Offers a try?
