Google Offers, the search giant's answer to Groupon, LivingSocial and Travelzoo, has now expanded to about 35 US markets, with JetBlue on board as a national advertiser.
During Google's fourth quarter earnings call yesterday, Susan Wojcicki, senior vice president of ads, said the product is "live in over 30 cities" and the company is starting to feature national advertisers such as JetBlue, REI and Toys R Us.
JetBlue will be offering vouchers for discounts on vacation packages through Google Offers.
Local deals started out as, well, local advertising offers, but deals providers increasingly are seeing great traction in offering nationally inspired deals throughout their local markets, as well.
Wojcicki noted that Google Offers enables Google to bring "online users to offline stores" -- and thus Google can tap into some of the offline advertising market.
In addition to the 35 US markets (some cities have several markets) already available on Google Offers, eight more US markets -- Charlotte, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Omaha, San Antonio and Tampa -- are listed as "coming soon."
Google Offers saw its billings jump 150% in November to some $3.5 million, but it was still half the size of Travelzoo Local Deals, according to Yipit data.
However, Wojcicki said Google will take a deliberate approach to expansion of its deals, which include everything from ski and rowing offers to restaurant and cleaning services deals.
"... It's very important to understand what's working in a specific market and in a city and perfecting that and really understanding the dynamics that make sense for us for the success of that city," Wojcicki said. "As so, as we expand, we'll expand with that knowledge."
While Google officials discussed advertising and mobile trends during their conference call, it was interesting to observe topics which didn't get a mention.
None of the analysts or Google officials mentioned the Federal Communications Commission probe of Google's search practices, and solutions -- such as Google Flight Search and Google Hotel Finder -- didn't get any air time.