AOL got into flash sales with a new deals site, Wow.com.
The site features deals in Washington, D.C., Boston and Philadelphia, with national deals slated to debut before the end of the year.
AOL says the local deals will get some real estate on the AOL homepage.
The "real deals for real people " site, as AOL describes Wow.com, features discounts at Peacock Cafe and Vida Fitness in the nation's capital, for example.
Trumpeting Wow.com, AOL says: "AOL is the newest entrant and first major media company to venture into the growing deal-of-the-day market."
There's another media company, Travelzoo, which recently entered the space in August 2010 with its Local Deals.
Travelzoo, with its sizable newsletter subscriber base, sees local deals as a signficant new business line.
In a recent regulatory filing, Travelzoo stated: "We compete with companies like Groupon and LivingSocial that also sell vouchers for deals from local businesses such as spas and restaurants."
Travelzoo can now add AOL to the list.
Oh, and by the way, Travelzoo can also add Facebook, which recently began serving nearby Deals when users check into the social network from their smartphones.
Wow.
So, who's the Groupon killer? No one probably, but you can list Facebook as a worthy potential suspect.
Is foursquare still breathing?
So far, so good.
Flash sales often blend into travel-oriented sales, including local tours, event tickets and hotel rooms.
And, the flash sales sector is exploding in growth -- as AOL's launch of Wow highlights.
A bold prediction?
One day deals sites may actually outnumber metasearch sites.
Who would have thunk it?