Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Google Maps Coupons

Coupons will be the classifieds of the next half decade. Just as Craigslist led online classifieds to steal away much of the print business, so will coupons usurp much of the direct mail and newspaper coupons of today.

The question is, will it be Google or someone else that is the fulcrum upon which the market pivots?

Coupons.com and other have been around for some time, but online coupons are still tiny compared with print business. Google is taking a major stride forward in slowly and stealthily integrating coupons into search, according to Mike Blumenthal.

If you subscribe to the coupons feature of Google Co-op, you can have coupon search results mixed into primary search results. This also works in Google Maps, but the delivery of search results is less than elegant.

I'm guessing that Google is testing the waters here for fear of agitating its primary advertisers. This makes sense until Google has enough coupon advertisers to merit more real estate on the results page. I expect Google and others to be pushing local coupons in a big way in the next year, which could eventually save a few trees in the process.

Posted By John Gartner at 08:17 AM
Permanent Link: Google Maps Coupons | Comments (1)

(1) Comments on Google Maps Coupons

Hi John

I think the inventory issue is the main reason. If you look at the blog posting I did on that even cities like NYC have only 500 or so coupons and 75% of those are provided by ValPak.

Once the inventory is in place I think you will see Coupons become a front page "item".

Mike Blumenthal

Comments by Mike Blumenthal : Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 10:15 AM

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