Google Local adding coupons

Wow, this sounds like a fantastic idea! I can imagine checking out a neighbourhood where I’ll be staying when visiting another country or state and just printing a bunch of coupons. Kinda lame that you actually have to carry them in hand, but still… this is innovation.

I digg this.

I’ll be using this thats for sure.

Like you said, mobile version would be great. SMS it to your cell phone or a coupon code instead of printing it would be easy to do.

Agreed. It’s a very nice move for Google to get into the local yellow page business.

I really like the idea oh there, great for all businesses

Google is looking to do to coupons what Craigslist has done to classifieds; namely leverage free Internet-based distribution to disrupt and cannibalize the market. Valpak has provided Google the critical mass they need to establish themselves as the destination site of choice for coupons and to jump-start their simple self-service coupon offering.

This move really validates the market for online coupons. At this point, I believe that the heads of AOL, MSN, Yahoo, IAC, News Corp. et al are asking what their coupon strategy should be. Google is looking to build a silo of coupons on their site. ZiXXo differs in that we offer a syndication network of online coupons. We are in talks with most of the big guys about leveraging our solution for self-service and syndication, and I expect that this will accelerate those talks.

The offline coupons folks, Valpak, MoneyMailer, ADVO, etc. all need to figure out how they will respond to Google. Again I believe that ZiXXo provides a mechanism to respond. We provide the self-service, the API for integration of coupons into content, tracking and reporting, coupon management (e.g. pausing coupons) and more. I believe that Google’s coupon solution will be a shot across the bow of these folks.

The market for online coupons is validated, it’s real and now we need to see who can execute better.

Michael, your link to Cellfire is broken.

Thanks Larry.

Predictable? Really? I would say adding advertisements on the map, paid links on the sidebar, and local adsense is predictable. Free coupon listings, while not mind blowing, seems unpredictable and clever, especially for getting advertisers interested in the paid services. It is probably one of the most effective ways to get local businesses interested in advertising on Google Local - much more so than through advertising directly to local businesses.

I guess when you’re the market leader you don’t have to make what you do too exciting to get positive reviews from tech-followers, it has to be mind blowing.

It could be a wonderful idea if it was exhaustive. But, how could it be exhaustive, even with some datas from Valpak.
Google local is for example completely empty.

“I guess when you’re the market leader you don’t have to make what you do too exciting, it just has to keep on working. ”

Google Local is not the market leader in online mapping, though - it is number three with about 7% market share, last I heard.

Ben, when it comes to maps as of a year ago that was the case.

Are you joking? This is sooo lame. Google ads junk mail to maps and everyone jumps for joy. Next we’ll get adsense for telemarketers and everyone will say how wonderful google is to bring offers for credit cards and mortgage rates right into the home! I laugh in your general direction.

i can’t remember ever using Google Local. it always seemed pretty ghastly, compared to the bustling metropolis of Yelp, or before that, CitySearch, not to mention CraigsList. “Google Local” has no ring to it whatsoever. this probably has to do with Yahoo acquiring services and keeping the existing brand name, and Google rolling their own and just prepending Google to a generic identifier.

their (google’s) services are almost always technically the best, but their marketing ability has remained static while they improved by orders of magnitude their payroll, computing power, search relevance, etc. i dont care if its caled Local.icious or Villager and 3 other things depending on the time of day and whether i clicked through from MySpace or YellowPages. why should we care that its google as long its their technology behind it..more brands creates the illusion of more competition with Yelp & CL anyways. do you smoke Lucky Strikes or are those Virginia Slims in your pocket?

This definetly sounds like an interesting concept… although I’ve never really clicked on those google advertisements on the side and in email. I guess for me what it will come down to is what kind of offers there will be. From the sounds of it, I’d agree that this will be beneficial for smaller businesses, which is great for local commerce.

Meh. Wake me up when they weave in Yelp reviews.

As a number of people have noted, Google has been picking up reviews and coupons as content onto thier local maps for a few months now.

Our merchants certainly love when thier coupons get picked up this way by Google and other properties. This is why we have made it so easy with the RSS feeds.

Outside of the Yellow Page companies, ValPak (which is owned by Cox which has another interesting local internet property: Kudzu) has one of the most effective channels for selling local advertising. The franchise model they have set up combined with a pretty effective local product works.

Todd has been making the rounds for the past couple of years to work how they take that distribution channel to merchants and use it for the local online market. This is a bold move and much more viable than thier prior efforts with Valpak.com and at a time where we are finding merchants are starting to “get” the internet. On average our merchants are uploading 40 pictures a piece. That would never have happened in 2000.

Estimates are that ValPak has around 176K merchants who advertise with them. Our believe has long been that you have to be pushing to 1,2,5M merchants to really change the local game. ValPak is one approach to helping Google achieve that and frankly may be more successful that the prior efforts with the YellowPage salesforces.