Google Map Coupons

Everyone weighs in.
Reuters:

"Google has partnered with Valpak, the top U.S. supplier of coupon advertising, to provide more than 20,000 coupons from current Valpak advertisers when consumers search for relevant stores using its Google Maps map and local directory service.

"One of the challenges small businesses face today is the lack of an ability to contend with online users," said Shailesh Rao, Google's director of local search. "We know it's a practical fact ... Small businesses rely on coupons," he said."

Red Herring:

"By offering its Google Base listing and its Google Maps location and coupon services for free, Google is forcing local radio stations and other traditional media outlets to find new wrinkles for wooing advertisers.

Google is pushing the coupon service as a new way for small businesses to attract customers—the kind of customers that spend more time online than listening to local radio or reading the local paper."

TechCrunch:

"Apparently users will print the coupons on paper. It would be nice if there was a mobile tie in like Cellfire offers. The primary problem with Cellfire is the relatively limited coupons available, presumably this won’t be an issue with Google. An Adsense tie in appears to be the next move on the way, with ads being sold that point to coupons."

Terry Heaton:

"Of course the real aim is, again, to pull money from local advertisers into the Google coffers, and this is another slap in the face of local media companies and local ad agencies who continue to try and force their reach/frequency model on everybody (and insist that the earth is flat).

Google continues to prove that they don't need the blessing of the status-quo to suck cash out of local markets, and this will be the downfall of those who view internet pure play companies as a nuisance instead of a threat."

MobHappy:

"My first reaction to this is - where’s the mobile element? Google Maps already offer the facility to send driving directions to your phone, so why not get the coupons sent there too? You could simply show the phone at the point of sale and that’s it."