Four days agowe reportedthat Google was in the process of developing Google Offers, a service that looks to be Google’s attempt at rivalling Groupon. It appears today that this service is now live. We noticed atweet by Lorand Minyowhich suggested Google Offers had gone live, after he had received the following coupon for a jewellery store in Minneapolis: Google stated that it was communicating with local businesses to gain support for the platform, getting companies to participate in its pre-paid offer and voucher scheme....

Hoping to catch the eyes and hearts of wayward travelers, Google has recently announced a promotional campaign for theirChromebookin conjunction withACE Hotel New YorkandVirgin America. From July 1 – September 30th, 2011, Virgin America passengers can give the Chromebook their own “test-flight” while in-flight, or at select airport gates. And naturally, passengers will receive a free WiFi session onboard their flight via the Gogo network. Travelers journeying from San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth should expect to see Google “Chrome Zone” lounges popping up, offering them a chance to learn about the Chromebook, as well as check one out for their flight....

The adage in tech used to be “what if Google built it?” The idea was that if Google built something, then you couldn’t possibly compete. Strangely, despite the success of many similar, successful products (the iPhone and Hotmail are still doing fine, last time we checked), people still believe that you can’t succeed in doing something that Google decides to doas well. As I’m reading through comments across the Internet, people are already talking about how Google’sforthcoming Offers productis going to killGroupon....

The past couple of days have been very interesting for publishers and content subscribers alike. Withyesterday’s announcementfrom Apple about how its subscription service would work, many questions were raised about how publishers would survive. Need a refresher? Here’s how the service works: Let’s say that you’reRhapsody. There’s a free version of your service, but there is also a paid model. Previously, people went to your website to sign up or they clicked a link in your app that took them to a subscription page....

Google’s Gmail team has been busy quietly rolling out the ability to sign up for a Gmail account directly from Internet-connected feature-phones – i.e., phones that can’t run apps but have a built-in browser. That may not sound very exciting. but it’s good news for Google as it allows potentially hundreds of millions of extra people across the to sign up to the service if they choose. As Googleannounceson its Africa Blog today, the move is designed to serve people who rely on a featurephone to access the Internet as they have no regular access to a computer or smartphone....