Google tried to buy GroupOn. It offered the deals service $6bn and GroupOn said no. Looks like that was a silly move as Google’s own deals plans have been revealed with Google Offers in its testing phase.
Google Offers was revealed in a cache of leaked documents but has been confirmed by Google. The service will send one local deal-of-the-day via email to users and those deals will be time limited and require a certain number of users to snap them up before they’re activated.
Though Google has spoken about the plans in detail, the Google Offers documents show it’ll be powered by Google Checkout and will feature Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Google Buzz and email options. Google is currently discussing the service with businesses and we’d expect it to launch in the US before it strikes out to markets like the UK.
Google told Mashable: “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.”
Let us know: did GroupOn make the biggest mistake of its life by turning down Google?