Google Maps launch a US coupon sytem – heading to the UK soon?
Posted by Malcolm Slade on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 in Digital Marketing, SEO
When Google Maps launched, it was as a fun piece of Googleness that would allow you to wow your friends and amaze your colleagues. A year on, and it’s becoming Google’s fastest growing innovation.
This week, Google have integrated online marketing with some old school tactics. Whilst you’ve been able to search an area and come up with the accompanying business listings for a while now, Google are keen to add some value to the businesses that partake in that scheme. They’ve therefore come up with a coupon system.
As well as seeing the listings for a particular area, businesses can now upload coupons, ready for the customer to print off and cash in. How 1986. And like any good Google proposition, they’re offering this one for free.
So, is it something we’re likely to see coming to the UK? There are arguments for both sides. On the one hand, Google have been upgrading the European offering by adding driving instructions, so it’s clearly an area they’re investing in. But on the other hand, coupons are a strangely American thing. Whilst we’ve got them in the UK, it’s not the marketing tool that it is over there. You only have to stand in a queue in a US supermarket to realise that it’s a national obsession. So, which way will it go?
[Via Search Engine Journal]
