San Francisco — Striving to capture the vast consumer audience, internet search engine titan Google has released a free mobile app for its daily deals site Google Offers, making it more convenient for U.S.-based Android users to discover great bargains this holiday season, purchase, and redeem online coupons, the company announced Thursday.
The complimentary mobile application, which is now available for download in the Android Market, helps people reap the benefits of deals offered through the service while on the go.
Interestingly, the Google Offers app is conceived to help shoppers discover, buy and redeem deals on the go. Not only can Android owners discover and purchase these deals directly from their smartphone, but with some merchants, they will also be able to redeem them without paper coupons or a proof of receipt.
The app is developed around four screens:
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A “Featured” screen that is the deal of the day. Thursday’s deal, for instance, is a coupon that you buy for $15 that can be redeemed for $25 at REI, an outdoor clothing and equipment retailer.
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A daily deal notifier, which alerts you about deals.
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An archive screen where you can see deals that you’ve purchased or saved, as well as deals that have expired.
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A screen for redeeming offers without printing them.
The company said it is intending to roll out a similar Google Offers app for Apple’s iOS in the near future.
The release comes just in time for the holiday shopping season, which is a smart move on Google’s part. Besides, initial reviews of the app at the Android Market have been positive. With more than 130 people weighing in on the software, the app’s garnered an average rating of 4.5 out of a maximum five stars.
Moreover, Google unleashed its Offers program in June in Portland, Ore. As the company spread the offering in more areas, it discovered that it needed to expand its offers so last month it announced it would offer deals from other deal sites with its own offerings.
In addition, just last week, Google Offers announced cross-promotion deals with 14 other daily deals sites, and will send an email of offers from partners like Gilt City, Dealfind, DoodleDeals, GolfNow, HomeRun, Juice in the City, kgbdeals, Mamapedia, Plum District, PopSugar Shop, ReachDeals, Active.com Schwaggle, TIPPR, and zozi.
Nevertheless, as Google said it will continue to secure deals directly from merchants, the company explained, it has concretely resolved to complement Offers with coupons from other deal brokers. The partners it has chosen focus on special areas, like outdoor products, so that overlap is minimized.
Download Google Offers version 1.0 at the Android Market. It requires Android 2.1 and 1.4MB of space.