Groupon, we have a problem….  There are several reasons why this
marketing hysteria over Groupon (and all the lookalike offers
clogging email accounts daily) will be a promotional “flash in
the pan”. To understand why Google was sufficiently infatuated
with Groupon to want to spend $6,000,000,000 buying them is
easy: localized marketing is one gap in the massive Google
portfolio. Groupon, in theory, would help them to plug that
hole.  As a consumer, I have purchased Groupons (although after
their Super Bowl debacle, I will reconsider in the future),
largely for one of two reasons:    1. They offered 50% off at a
restaurant or retailer that I already was a customer at, and was
intending to purchase from in the future anyway, or,   2. They
offered 50% off at a restaurant that I had not been to, but
would go to at a greatly discounted price (although I would not
go back as a “full price” customer again).  I am pretty sure I
am not alone in my motivations for having purchased a deal from
Groupon. And, to the dism