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It's fine that Google is late in to group buying, but the problem is they aren't going to be able to do it any better than Groupon or Living Social so people aren't going to care. As other said, Google killed it with Gmail and it was far better than any other mail service, but how much better can they make 50% off coupons?

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They don't have to be better if it comes installed on new android phones.

Wasn't buzz going to kill twitter too because you don't have to leave your inbox?

yeah, but I don't think it's analogous. First, buzz is only useful if your friends are using it too. This isn't true for coupons. Second, there will be a whole lot of non tech savy people that will buy an android phone and click the big icon that says "coupons". I think this is a very different demographic with a much lower barrier for a new user to find it useful.

Should be interesting longterm to see how this coupon craze plays out. My mom figured out Groupon, but has no clue what a smartphone is so Google may be a little ahead of the curve for part of the demographic they are after.

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