Google has last laugh, creates Groupon clone Google Offers

At the beginning of December, everyone was convinced that Google was going to eat up Groupon, for a not very shabby $6 billion reported price tag.

But as quickly as the rumors started, the deal fell apart. Groupon was said to have bypassed the massive deal, seeking valuation of nearly three times as much. A scant six weeks later, it has been revealed that Google is entering the space of daily group deals with Google Offers. Details are light, but Google has confirmed the existence of Google Offers, and Mashable, who broke the story, has a super-delicious picture of Indian food to prove it:

Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.

Groupon probably anticipated such a move, but as Mashable points out, there could be space for both versions to be huge in the daily deals realm- a development that can only be totally awesome for users. Do you think Groupon can hold its own against competition from Google?