Google Offers signs up partners, expanding and personalizing

By Trevor Mogg October 28, 2011

In the same week that daily deals leader Groupon began its IPO roadshow to try to generate investor interest in the company, Google Offers has rolled out some changes to its similar service, and also started operating in four more US cities: Baltimore, Minneapolis, San Diego and San Jose.

Changes to Google’s daily deals service were announced by the search giant on its official blog on Thursday.

The company has partnered with at least 15 other deal providers to give subscribers a wider range of offers from a number of new categories, including, for example, outdoor adventure sports, luxury experiences and family-friendly events.

The deal providers that have partnered with Google include DoodleDeals, HomeRun, Juice in the City, kgbdeals and PopSugar Shop. The new deals will initially be rolled out to subscribers located in the San Francisco Bay Area, with others cities following in the coming months.

Google Offers is also introducing what it calls a personalization quiz to ensure subscribers receive deals that match their interests. “If you’re not the outdoorsy type or interested in cosmetic treatments, then we won’t send you deals for zipline adventures and laser hair removal,” Google Offers’ Nitin Mangtani wrote in the blog post.

The updates to its service, as well as the unveiling of new partnerships with other deal providers, show Google has big plans for the daily deals business, one currently led by Groupon.

Groupon is this week trying to drum up investor interest in its IPO. The company aims to sell 30 million shares for between $16 and $18 in an effort to raise up to $540 million. This would value the daily deals company at $11.4 billion.

Almost a year ago, Google put in a $6 billion bid for Groupon. The Chicago-based company rejected the offer, and less than six months later Google Offers launched.

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