Big Apple and Bay Area to get next bite of Google Offers

12 Jul 2011

Google’s deals service Google Offers, which launched a beta a month ago, will start posting offers to New Yorkers and residents of San Francisco’s Bay Area starting today. Users will receive offers via email and on Android devices.

Google Offers is the internet giant’s answer to Groupon, which it tried to buy in January for more than US$6bn. Google Offers went on beta in Portland a month ago.

The deals space is growing and growing, enabled by deal-hungry consumers with smartphones who are excited by thrift but grounded in the reality of recession.

Google, which also has services like Google Places and a global advertising empire, is well positioned to thrive on the next generation of deals services which will be powered by existing internet and mobile technologies and location-enabled devices.

Starting today, subscribers who sign up at www.google.com/offers or via the new “Today’s Offer” tab in Google Shopper 2.0 for Android will start receiving emails with local offers in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Upcoming cities to get the service include Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com