It seems like a reasonable thing for Google to do, while I agree that Groupon and friends are probably a bubble, I think Google could turn it into a feature that their advertisement customers want.

The bad thing (to me, at least) in all of this is that the basic concept is great - but it cannot sustain the silliness of what's going on with investment in this rather limited space.

Just like the internet advertising bubble in the late 90s.

You might see a temporary contraction in the industry, but the model's not going anywhere.