After being introduced in Portland, Ore., Google Offers has been launched in New York and San Francisco.

Google Offers is presented as a strong rival to Groupon – a well-known social coupon service, says TechZone360. Google Offers had tried to acquire Groupon in 2010, but that attempt failed. It took Google about a year to go live with Google Offers.

Here is how Google Offers works. Google puts a business’ “offer in front of thousands of potential buyers in your area,” according to the site’s website. The site helps a business by finding customers and getting them to make it over to the business. Also, customers can pre-pay so businesses get paid just “a few days after your offer runs.”

“We do the heavy lifting so you can focus on welcoming your new customers and making sure they return,” explains Google Offers.

BusinessInsider reports Google Offers has some advantages over Groupon “that could allow Google to become a big player in the deals industry.”

But BusinessInsider also warns that Google Offers’ “biggest disadvantage” is it’s “likely to under-invest in the sales infrastructure needed to make Offers a smash hit.”

BusinessInsider still calls Google Offers a “Groupon-killer.” Google Offers has some key advantages over its rivals. It has quicker and much better payment terms for merchants than other deal providers, BusinessInsider said. In addition, Google Offers gives money from unredeemed vouchers to merchants.

Also, Google is making Offers a bigger “marketing engine” than just a "daily deal" service via e-mail, BusinessInsider says. Some of the tools to provide wider options are now being tested in beta version, BusinessInsider says.

“Google's AdWords, AdSense, Gmail, third-party site network partners, and other global products give it an immense portfolio of tools with which to distribute deals,” BusinessInsider adds.

Google Offers may have another key advantage: search engine optimization. But because Google has gotten into a controversy over allegations about search engine rankings, "SEO benefits" are “highly controversial,” too, and there is nothing official about them from the company, BusinessInsider says.