Google moves to take on Groupon with beta launch of Offers

By Adam Rosenberg April 22, 2011

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Google moved to build its own daily deals-giving service earlier this year following an unsuccessful bid to acquire one of the market leaders for such services, Groupon. Word of Google Offers first slipped out in January, and now the search giant has kicked off the first phase of its gradually unrolling beta test for the service.

For now, all you can do is sign up for the service at http://www.google.com/offers. The sign-up page notes that users can look forward to getting deals of 50 percent off or more. The beta will launch first in Portland, Ore. and soon after move on to New York City, N.Y. and San Francisco, Calif. Signing up for the beta is simple; select your location from a pulldown menu — NYC is divided into “downtown,” “midtown” and “uptown” sections and San Francisco is joined by the separate Oakland / East Bay — and click Subscribe.

Google’s Chris Messina revealed the beta launch in a tweet yesterday, later clarifying in a follow-up that only sign-ups are open right now, with offers to come “later,” first in Portland, then New York, then San Francisco. A video released by Google talks up the new initiative, promising deals for a range of products and services, much like the competitors do.

All of which echoes what was first revealed in January. A leaked factsheet revealed that Google Offers “is a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email.” Which is pretty much identical to what sites like Groupon and LivingSocial do.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Web
Google

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

Computing

Save $400 on this Razer gaming laptop with an RTX 4060

A game playing on the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop.

For a gaming laptop that will be able to handle the most demanding games, you're going to want a machine that's as powerful as the Razer Blade 14 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. It's understandably expensive, but you can currently get it with a $400 discount from Razer that drops its price to an even $2,000 from $2,400 originally. We're not sure how much time is remaining before this offer ends though, so if you want the savings, you're going to have to complete your purchase as soon as you can.

Why you should buy the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop
The Razer Blade 14 is capable of challenging the best gaming laptops with the help of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, which offers excellent efficiency and strong ray tracing performance. Combined with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor and 16GB of RAM that's good for gaming, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need, not only will you be able to play the best PC games without any issues, but you'll also be prepared for the upcoming PC games of the next few years.

Computing

Get this Asus laptop with a year of Microsoft Office for $199

asus vivobook go laptop deal amazon march 2024 lifestyle

You don't need to spend several hundreds of dollars on a new laptop that you'll use as a productivity tool because there are budget-friendly options like the Asus Vivobook Go L510MA. It's actually currently even cheaper from Walmart after an $80 discount, which brings its price down to just $199 from $279 originally. There's no telling how much time is remaining before the offer expires though, so if you want to take advantage of it, you're going to have to proceed with the purchase as soon as possible.

Why you should buy the Asus Vivobook Go L510MA
For a laptop that will be able to handle basic activities like doing online research, building reports, and browsing social media, you can't go wrong with the Asus Vivobook Go L510MA. It's equipped with the Intel Pentium Silver N5030 processor and 4GB of RAM, which are a far cry from the specifications of the best laptops, but it will be enough for simple tasks. The device also comes with a 15.6-inch screen with Full HD resolution, which is pretty large and sharp for its price, but it's still portable as it only weights about 3.5 pounds with a thickness of just 0.72 of an inch.

Computing

These are the 10 best gaming PCs I’d recommend to anyone

Graphics card in the CLX Hathor PC.

We review dozens of gaming PCs each year. In 2024, there are a ton of great options, but we've narrowed them down to a list of the 10 best gaming desktops that deserve your hard-earned money.

In 2024, we still recommend the Alienware Aurora R16 because of its fantastic design, solid performance, and decent value. However, there are several other options depending on your needs and budget. If you want a deeper look into how we evaluate gaming PCs, make sure to read about how we review desktops.